RadiGaMe - Processes of Radicalization and Prevention Measures on Gaming Platforms: Analysis and Knowledge Transfer

Research on gaming and extremism is still in its infancy. The RadiGaMe sub-project of the PRIF addresses two central deficits in the understanding of the relationship between gaming and extremism: First, there are important empirical and conceptual research gaps the projects aims to close. These include a profound understanding of how non-radicalized users of gaming platforms can be distinguished from users being at risk of radicalization and which platform-specific characteristics are particularly relevant here. Secondly, the current state of prevention work on gaming platforms will be reviewed, it will be analyzed how prevention work in these spaces could/should be designed in the future, and prevention actors will be enabled to use platform-specific knowledge to develop new prevention approaches in the gaming sector.

The central research questions of the sub-project are: (1) How do non-radicalized users and users being at risk of radicalization communicate on gaming platforms? (2) How can radicalization processes be identified in these communication patterns? (3) How can this content-analytical approaches be implemented convincingly in terms of research ethics and data protection, and what insights can be derived from that for prevention and investigation work on gaming platforms? (4) What points of intervention result from the analysis of communication patterns for prevention work? (5) How can prevention practitioners, security agencies, and tech companies better collaborate?

The sub-project of PRIF is part of the RadiGaMe research network, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the funding measures "Civil Security - Threats in the Digital Space" with a duration from 2023 to 2026. The project is coordinated by the Center for Technology and Society at the Technical University of Berlin. Other project partners are the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society (IDZ) Jena, Ludwigs-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU), Ruhr-University Bochum, modus/zad - Center for Applied Deradicalization Research Berlin, the State Criminal Police Office Berlin and Munich Innovation Labs.

Website

The German-language RadiGaMe website can be reached under the following link: https://www.radigame.de/