What one might call the “public-private surveillance and censorship partnership” in the US is going strong, even regarding gaming – as gleaned in a new report detailing FBI and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) report on “countering violent (domestic) extremism.”
The tone of the report seems extreme. The two US government agencies claim that there is such violence to be found on social and gaming platforms, and so to “counter” it – the companies behind these platforms and the government agencies have been holding regular meetings.
The reason why the document saw the light of day is that the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee asked the FBI and DHS that it be submitted.
It revealed that there are mechanisms “for sharing information with, and receiving information from, social media and gaming companies about domestic violent extremism.”
The FBI/DHS report shows that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) wants the two agencies to come up with strategies that would see the current “information sharing” likely grow into even more invasive forms of surveillance.
As things stand, both the FBI and DHS already have “mechanisms” in place with social and gaming platforms, enabling them to “receive and share” content regarding the said brand of “domestic extremism.”
The report also quoted one compiled by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) in 2022, that asserts as many as 20% of adult gamers have been “exposed” to white supremacy – clearly, in games.
But the question then becomes the ADL’s record as fair and accurate methodology goes, to determine what “white supremacy” is and how gamers are supposedly exposed to it, percentage-wise. And it turns out that record is shaky – “hate and fake content” from previous reports do not fully stand scrutiny.
But it’s games, folks. And there’s also satire and humor – all creative, not scientific, and therefore intrinsically subjective art forms. When and how, does that category of content even become a target for state surveillance in a true democracy? That’s the important, big picture question here.
Meanwhile, that is not to say any of this is lost on US courts. What’s come to be known as “(Big)Government-Big Tech Collusion” caused the Supreme Court to tell the Biden administration to STOP – even if only as a matter of an injunction last year.
The reason for issuing it was suspicion that the suspected collusion had resulted in “arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.”
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