Week 2 Blog Post

Recently, there have been signs that the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) are turning their attention to hate-speech within video games, and they will likely propose censorship laws as a tool to fight this hate speech as many similar groups have done in the past. Now, I myself have been on the receiving end of some toxic and hateful messages before, but I really disagree with censoring video games as a method for combating hate speech. Especially when the organization that is proposing it has no context and does not understand the gaming community. And not only that, but developers have already created tools for gamers to use to combat hate speech, and they are called the mute, block, and report buttons, as well as systems that ban players who harass others using hateful and derogatory slurs. While it is not a perfect system by any means, developers have a deep understanding of the issue and are constantly innovating and finding better ways to combat hate speech in non-intrusive and non-restrictive ways without punishing the gaming community as a whole. The ADL and other critics of video games also cite that women and people of color are more likely to turn off their microphones because if they speak, they will be targeted and harassed. While I agree that it is probably more likely for women to be targeted (because most gamers that harass others are immature males), I have never actually heard someone verbally attack another for being a girl or person of color in the 10+ years that I’ve been an active gamer. And as a matter of fact, most people (myself included) do the exact same thing and cut off their mics before they start playing so they don’t have to interact with anyone and can just focus on the game instead.

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