Expert Roundtable event on Video Games and Violent Extremism: A Law enforcement/intelligence approach
The 51吃瓜 Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), in partnership with the Kingdom of Morocco, hosted an Expert Group Meeting analyzing Video Games and Violent Extremism through a law enforcement and intelligence approach, on 27 May 2024, in the UNOCT Programme Office in Rabat.
With a global gaming community numbering nearly 3 billion, Africa represents an emerging market for the gaming industry. The growing popularity of video games and their interaction with other online communities has created significant sub-cultures. While gaming can act as a force for good – forging new connections, or opportunities in support of conflict resolution, terrorists and violent extremists are increasingly exploiting these expanding spaces in attempts to recruit, radicalize, and disseminate propaganda. The threat is multifaceted with terrorists and their supporters creating new games, modifying existing games, and utilizing adjacent gaming platforms to infiltrate every aspect of gamers’ lives.
As this threat is a growing concern to Member States, UNOCT is committed to raising awareness and providing investigative and programmatic responses to counter this exploitation as well as exploring opportunities to use the gaming space to prevent and counter violent extremism.
The event held in Rabat focused on understanding the emerging threat of terrorist exploitation of gaming and gaming adjacent spaces, examining the counter- terrorism risk and opportunity for gaming and gaming adjacent platforms, discussing the implications for law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and hosted an interactive Q&A session with the experts and participants to better understand the issue.
Gaming and terrorism experts from across Africa, including, from Libya, Morocco, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal attended the event.
The event was organized by UNOCT’s Programme Office for Counter-Terrorism and Training in Africa, UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) programme on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism, and UNOCT Global Counter-Terrorism Investigations Programme.
