At the Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN), we bring together world-leading counter-extremism researchers, practitioners, and policy makers together with the private sector to develop solutions for the exploitation of online gaming by terrorists and violent extremists. Set up as a practitioner-led initiative in 2021 to counter new online harms and lead evidence-driven solutions, today the EGRN convenes over 80 members, ranging from United Nations agencies to think tanks and private sector organizations. Through our partnerships, the EGRN is at the center of emerging research and analysis while impacting policy and tech design. We work to promote realistic, non-stigmatizing research and programs with a clear focus on using gaming for good. By working collaboratively across academia and practitioners, we advise tech platforms and governments alike to help gaming communities become inclusive, diverse online spaces while curbing the impact of harmful online content.
The EGRN leads evidence-based research at the nexus between gaming and extremism while providing effective solutions for various public and private stakeholders. Our members work to evidence the ways in which gaming is used by malign actors for harm, and also the opportunities to use gaming for good to counter harm. Core to this is our collaborative work with gaming platforms to create resilience-building solutions for gamers.
There is no other initiative dedicated to convening cross-sector actors to prevent violent extremism and foster resilience among gamer communities. Our focus, scope, and breadth of convening power is our unique strength: we are dedicated to keeping gaming fun while pushing back against extremism and online harms. Similar initiatives, such as the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), participate in the EGRN, allowing us to achieve substantial network effects, as well as leverage existing tools and expertise through collaborative means. We also act as a bridge from gamer communities and small CSOs developing their own games, all the way to donor governments and international policymakers at the United Nations through the mandated UN Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT) and other mandated UN agencies including UNDP and UNITAR.
As a collaborative, at-will, network, individual and institutional benefits of becoming a member of the EGRN include, but are not limited to:
There are currently over 80 individual and organization members of the Network. A selection of our members are shown here. To view all our members, click below:
The EGRN publicly launched on 6 October 2021 — our introductory panel video provides an overview of the Network, preliminary research, and research trajectory. Interested in learning more? Download the State of Play on Gaming & Extremism authored by Galen Lamphere-Englund & Luxinaree Bunmathong at Love Frankie and the EGRN or browse more of our members’ research.
Since then, we’ve been mentioned by Axios and over 20 other media reports and regularly brief tech platforms, governments, and civil society organizations.
Video games and gamification have become key tools of extremist actors’ recruitment arsenal and have taken a central role in their modus operandi. Analyses have pointed out how terrorists employ gaming elements in staging their attacks, or how violent extremists create full-blown video games fraught with hateful narratives and include opportunities to annihilate various social and ethnic groups.
Using empirical data taken from the Christchurch attack in New Zealand in March 2019, w provide a summary of how the attack was gamified in nature and how the data is laden with overt and more subtle overlaps with video games more generally.
In 2021, we developed a report at Love Frankie (LF) for our community of practice at the Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN) to understand the state of research into linkages between video games, gaming communities, and extremism. In the State of Play: Reviewing the Literature on Gaming & Extremism, we provide an overview of existing available literature on research and publications on the use of gaming platforms, video games, and related online fora.