Playing To Win: How Online Gaming Should Fix Its Content Moderation Problem

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Friend,

S.T.O.P. is excited to announce the release of our latest research report, Banned for Being: Moderating Online Games’ Public Sphere. Online video games and gamer-centered platforms like Twitch are more than just a space to play the new Mario Cart. They host lively public forums where people build communities and engage in political activity.

But these forums reflect society’s evils as well as its good, with rampant identity-based harassment against women (cis and trans), BIPOC, LGBTQ+ players and others. While video game companies address this hate by moderating gamers’ speech, S.T.O.P. found that moderation frequently backfires, hurting the gamers it’s meant to help. Over and over again, gamers get “banned for being” when they assert their identities and “banned for responding” when they stand up to abuse.

Moderators’ bad calls alienate and exclude historically marginalized gamers. They reinforce the perception that gaming is a straight cis white man’s world. Our report urges game companies to do better by implementing robust notice and appeals systems to reverse bad calls. Beyond that, game companies must change the rules of moderation. They must interpret gamers’ speech in context and carefully limit rules against political and controversial speech.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Online games aren’t just games, they’re vibrant extensions of civil society in a sector that is growing rapidly as companies build virtual and augmented reality worlds. These steps will help game companies stop forcing historically marginalized gamers off of games or into hiding—and help companies satisfy their frequent pledges to build inclusive online communities.

In solidarity,
Eleni Manis
Research Director

Forward

communications staffMay 19, 2023