Hate and harassment were recorded in nearly half of online multiplayer game sessions tested by a range of religious, ethnic and national identity-based users, according to the Anti-Defamation Leaguethe latest research.
A third of gaming sessions that revealed pride in ethnic, religious or national identity resulted in abuse; and 38% of gaming sessions included harassment towards a Jew.
Instead of conducting an annual survey of gaming, the ADL Center for Technology and Society took a different approach to research this year, asking gamers to play 15 hours of games with usernames that identified a specific -national, religious and ethnic identity. And they got a lot of hate.
Examples of hate and harassment included racial slurs, trash talking or playing disruptive. Identity-based harassment was present in one-third of gaming sessions across the four games (Valorant, Counterstrike 2, Overwatch 2 and Fortnite) played by participants (student researchers) using usernames ” Proud2bJewish”, “Proud2bMuslim”, “Proud2bChinese”, “Proud2bIsrael”, and “Proud2bMexican”.
In some sessions, people were not only harassed based on their specific username but also encountered general identity-based harassment or harassment towards multiple other identities.
“The normalization of inappropriate harassment in online games is a cause for concern not only because of its prevalence and the fact that so many teenagers and young people are exposed to hate in these places, but also because of the intensity of the verbal abuse we have documented,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of ADL, said in a statement. “It is not sensible to hear phrases such as 'gas the Jews', to call people the 'n-word' or to see a player named Hitler; it's pure hate and game companies need to step up and stop it.”
Among the four games tested, Valorant and Counterstrike 2 stood out for leading to some form of frustration in about two-thirds of the game sessions; half had identity-based harassment. Overwatch 2 and Fortnite, in comparison, showed the least identity-based harassment (8% for Overwatch 2 and 20% for Fortnite).
In Valorant and Counterstrike 2, over half (57%) of the play sessions with the username 'Proud2bJewish' included some level of harassment based on Jewish identity.
ADL has been studying hate and harassment – as well as prosocial behavior – in online multiplayer games since 2019. Six out of ten people (ages 5-90) in the US play games video, according to the Entertainment Software Association, and there are more. 3 billion players worldwide. In 2023, ADL found that 76 percent of adult (ages 18-45) and 75 percent of teens (ages 10-17) participants in online multiplayer games reported suffering they no harassment in online games.
“As more and more people join online playgrounds, we need to find ways to reduce disruptive behavior, hate and harassment,” said Daniel Kelley, interim chief executive & director of strategy and activities at the ADL Technology and Society Center, in a statement. “The gaming industry and government have a responsibility to ensure that people feel safe while engaging in competitive online gaming. As shown in our research, the these places lead to prosocial behavior, which should not be taken over by the abuse that we are recording. At the same time, it is alarming that one of the main responses of every participant in the study said they expected there to be even more hate than there was.”
I interviewed Kelley and we talked about the nuances of the research. The report also included detailed recommendations for the game industry, government, researchers and carers. The full list is available at the end of the report.
“These are moving places,” Kelley said. “When you're talking about a game-based game, like Counter-Strike or Fortnite, these places are there for a few minutes and then they're gone. Therefore the ability of researchers to understand these places is very limited. And so what we did here was have a bunch of participants play a bunch of major online multiplayer games using a bunch of usernames that show pride in authentic special recognition and recorded these sessions.”
The result was not a nationally representative sample as required for a survey. But the sessions produced qualitative data on what it's like to bring your identity into an online game and how people in that community react to it.
“About half of the participants experience some form of hate,” Kelley said. “What was interesting, the participants who are students or recent graduates said they thought there would be more ideas for them. The reputation of online games as social places is such that they thought that hate was expected.”
Since the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, anti-Israel or anti-Jewish hatred has been on the rise, Kelley said. But this study did not focus on that specifically.
“What we see here is a continued trend and a continued manifestation of the rise in anti-Semitism that we have seen around the world. Definitely from the events of 10-7-2023. But I think you can see the kind of stripped-down feel of it in those places,” Kelley said. “They're communicating with someone whose username says Proud2bJewish or Proud2bIsrael, and people's response to that is sometimes 'get in the ovens,'” he said.
The ADL did not look at anti-Palestinian behavior in this particular study. Kelley said there will be more work in future studies.
Tips for business
- Implement industry-wide policy and design practices to better address hate targeting of specific identities.
- Encourage and encourage prosocial behavior through design.
- Instead of reducing Trust & Safety headcount, as many companies did in 2023 and 2024, companies must expand resources in this important area.
- Develop reporting and support systems for targets of harassment.
- Strengthened content evaluation tools for in-game voice chat.
- Reports spread regular, consistent exposure to hate and harassment.
Recommendations to the government:
In February 2024, ADL published its annual report Hate is No Game: Hate and Harassment in
2023 online games in which governments must take a more active role in combat
hate and harassment in games were highlighted.
In particular, Kelley said the ADL has supported laws against SWAT raids, where people call police SWAT teams on players' homes, or doxing, where players reveal other players' personal information.
The ADL recommended:
- Prioritize transparency legislation in digital spaces and introduce online multiplayer games.
- Increase access to justice for victims of online abuse.
- Establish a National Games Safety Task Force.
- Resource research efforts.
Procedure
In late 2023 through the summer of 2024, a diverse group of students, recent graduates, and young adults participated as game players in four competitive online first-person shooter games (Valorant, Counterstrike 2, Fortnite, and Overwatch 2) with the usernames Proud2BJewish, Proud2BMuslim, Proud2BIsraeli, Proud2BMexican, Proud2BChinese.
The students recorded the nearly 250 hours of global play and experiences after each hour of play.
ADL is the world's leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913, its timeless mission is “to end the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all.” Today, ADL continues to fight against all forms of antisemitism and bias, using innovation and partnerships to drive impact.
The group has been conducting surveys on hate and harassment in online games since 2019. One of the challenging things about conducting the surveys is that the industry itself does not share data, Kelley said. . The ADL has pushed game companies like Activision to include anti-terrorism policies in their codes of conduct.
Kelley said Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 had a much smoother experience than Overwatch 2 and Fortnite.
“I think Overwatch 2 and Fortnite have done a little bit more in terms of policy, in terms of design, to prevent hate and harassment in those spaces. However, you don't see that much among Counter-Strike. I think Valve is way behind the game industry, in general.”
There are some game companies like Activision and Roblox that have been using AI to overcome toxic behavior in games. Activision uses AI to screen for verbal violations of its standards and Roblox can send warnings to people who use foul language. These companies have been aggressive. Activision also needs to crack down on cheaters a lot.
In contrast, X Elon Musk (formerly Twitter) has stopped fact-checking for community comments, and Facebook Meta is dropping fact-checking for something similar. That is partly happening because of a change in ownership or a change in political leadership in the White House and Congress.
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