Hate Speech in the Gaming Community and Social Media

Hate speech, doxxing, flaming, trolling, and generally socially unacceptable communication has become so ingrained in many game communities that most users take it as a given, accepting it with an unhealthy dose of apathy.

Titles such as League of Legends, Overwatch, Call of Duty or Dota 2 are almost synonymous with bad behavior and exceedingly unpleasant experiences with fellow players. "Welcome to the Internet." This is a truly troubling situation, not just for the users involved, but also for game companies.

By not taking serious action on hate speech, be it in-game communication or social media commentary on their pages, companies are allowing an environment of systematic abuse and discrimination to flourish.

Ina Liukkonen, linguist and project manager at BrandBastion, explores in an in-depth article how this environment came to be and what game companies can do to address this issue. 

Highlights

The article covers:

• Why hate speech is a unique challenge for the gaming industry
• The challenge of moderating hate speech on social media
• Why hate speech must be dealt with systematically
• What game companies and system moderators can do to prevent hate speech

Read the full article by clicking the link below!