New York, NY, July 27, 2022 – One-in-four moderation actions across three private servers of the popular video game Minecraft are in response to online hate and harassment, according to a study published today by ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Center for Technology and Society, in collaboration with Take This, Gamersafer and the Middlebury Institute’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism.
“As with many online games, we’ve found that large numbers of Minecraft users experience hateful speech and harassment while using the platform,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “From this snapshot, it is clear that Minecraft and the gaming industry broadly must do more to ensure their online spaces have robust community guidelines and that they provide researchers access to more data and information on its servers.”
The study found that of all content that elicited a moderator response (including a ban, warning, mute, or kick from the server), 16 percent were the result of harassment and 10 percent were the result of identity-based hate.