Far-right groups are using online games such as Fortnite to radicalize kids and recruit them into their organizations, according to one reformed neo-Nazi.

Speaking about his time as a “white supremacist leader,” skinhead-turned-peace activist Christian Picciolini explained how his group “sought marginalized youth and promised them ‘paradise.’”

Answering readers’ questions on internet forum Reddit, Picciolini made it clear that this is still happening today, through “nefarious tactics like going to depression and mental health forums, and in multiplayer gaming, to recruit those same people.”

“They drop benign hints and then ramp up when hooked,” he explained. In some games, these hints can start by talking about how some in-game races are superior to others, for example, and move on from there to drawing real-world “parallels.”

When asked what games these groups used, Picciolini said “Fortnite, Minecraft, COD, all of them.”

The people involved in recruitment in these games are “mostly foreign recruiters from Russia and eastern Europe,” according to Picciolini. These international initiatives are “somewhat” co-ordinated, he says.

Many fringe gaming-related groups are tied to the far-right, with the misogynistic “gamergate” movement the best known thanks to its ties to the alt-right.

It’s also not Fortnite’s first brush with Nazi controversy. Developer Epic Games was forced into action last week when players discovered some of the game’s floor tiles contained swastikas.

It’s not the first time the internet or online gaming has been implicated in such radicalization. ISIS was found to be using a spelling app to radicalize British kids last year, and extremists targeted kids as young as 14 using YouTube with a message that jihad was better than football.

https://nypost.com/2018/07/02/former-neo-nazi-says-white-supremacists-use-fortnite-to-recruit-kids/

Not buying it. Sounds like a load of bullshit to me. You can't tell what race someone is from voice alone, so it throws the entire concept out the window from the get-go.

Fortnite racist confirmed.

Is gamergate really mysoginistic? YouTubers I know who aren't mysoginistic are part of it and say only a few d-bags are while the core and the real gamergate aren't. I don't personally know though only through them

Oh yea, lets take the word of one former neo Nazi

Just like when all the articles came out that said the florida mass shooter nikolaz cruz was a member of a neo Nazi group cause a member said he was and that he went to meetings and such. Later found out the guy was completely lying and there was no link at all between the two.

I'm not saying they aren't using it. But every evil orgainazion is using all forms of media, whether its forntite, twitter, facebook, youtube videos, ect. Nazi's, ISIS, ect. They are all doing it. This is not news and not surprising.

This makes absolutely no sense. Racist groups like the "KKK" are completely different from ACTUAL terrorist groups like "ISIS" and "Al Quaeda". How the hell do you recruit people to be a neo nazi? It's either you were raised ignorant or you weren't, you can't just be recruited and turned into a racist instantly.

I don't but about this story you just mentioned, but I do know the Picciolini is a well-known activist and dude who's legitimately involved in deradicalizing youth. 

Besides this I agree - there is nothing new about such groups using social media and popular games to recruit. I mean there was even an ISIS-developed game at one point. 

Gamergate wasn't an organized movement. Pretty much any shitposter with any agenda could consider themselves a part of it as long as they vaguely aligned themselves with the core tenet of "ethics in game journalism."

No one says that people are recruited and turned into racists instantly. Where did you get that from? 

The KKK is exactly like terrorists groups like ISIS - they recruit people in vulnerable positions. It's easy to hang out with skinheads as a mean to belong and then be indoctrinated into the group, or already be prone to indoctrination through media and social environment. This is literally how every group like this works. No one is born a racist or a terrorist. 

ISIS recruited online as well, and this process takes time. Here's a TED talk from the dude Picciolini (from the article) that I found:https://www.ted.com/talks/christian_picciolini_my_descent_into_america_s_neo_nazi_movement_and_how_i_got_out 

Sounds plausible. I played Mario Kart with Adolf Hitler recently.