Dear me, Jon. Dear me indeed.

https://twitter.com/jondelarroz/status/1108494622018301952

x.com/jondelarroz/st… x.com/jondelarroz/st…

I did that thing I do. A small 🧵🧵

So after seeing someone else found the linkedin for the guy hate crusading on @Asmongold for the crime of thinking people who harass an artist are stupid and lame (paraphrasing, probably), I did my thing.

Naturally I went to his linked in, then the company one. And there were some curious things.

So the sound guy isn’t just a sound guy, he calls himself a cofounder. Kind of misleading on twitter and I’m not sure why? Audio wouldn’t come before cofounder title……

They hired an advisor who is very heavy in the DEI. I wonder if he advised them to do something like this- be eager to misrepresent the current issues and complaints in gaming?

Either way, “consultants” continue to be the biggest waste of money to studios that exist. It once used to be a useful term, relating only to historians, or lawyers, or actual marketers. Now it’s just anyone with an extra immutable trait.

G🧵🧵If his name sounds familiar to you, thats because Senator Warner was exposed in the Twitter Files, released by Elon Musk and Taibbi.

Warner was part of the politicians and governments pushing platforms to censor certain accounts, despite those accounts failing to show a pattern of behavior that support his claims.

Warner, who is among the MOST WEALTHY of ALL the senate, was part of the intelligence committee at that time but he has held power since 2009. Though most of his wealth was amassed prior to politics, he has only grown his coffers since.

Currently, he oversees housing and urban affairs (Blackrock and Blackstone are very interested in this man, smile), intelligence, and a few other things. He was also the lead behind getting tiktok banned in America, which does remain a controversial topic.

I do not believe this man supports censorship in such a black and white way, but it is unclear how he forms his opinions around it. The only thing I do know, is he speaks from a place of ignorance here today.

In 2021, he aimed to reform section 230 of the communications decency act, which holds companies accountable for what is posted on their platforms, claiming the aim is to prevent hate speech, harassment, and human rights abuses. The ADL previously supported this and praised him for it.

Given this, there is a clear history between them, even if it is small, this causes concern. Why? Because he is now using a report from them that is based on misrepresenting data to make egregious claims. Less than 1% of accounts on steam engage in the sharing of "pepe the frog"- which is just a meme. It is not hate speech, it is not "right wing".


Thanks to opensecrets, we can see some top contributors, interestingly enough, blackrock, visa, and mastercard are all listed as contributors.

🧵🧵🧵Want a glimpse into who is responsible for the "super quirky" and "talented" writing we've seen so far of #DragonAgeVeilguard ?

What love most about the writing we've seen is that it truly speaks from an "authentic" self inserting kind of way that is void of nuance in exchange for low effort knock off marvel humor from someone who substitutes reality for fantasy, and fantasy for reality.


You're probably wondering who hired this absolutely talented individual who totally isn't pandering.

Patrick moved off of twitter, deleting all his tweets, but he's pretty active on BS.

The narrative designer had the ability to hire the above individual, who is also writing a novel. I'm certain its absolutely very different from the writing in Veilgar- oh...

🧵🧵 a small thread of clips from #dustborn so far. I played the game for 7 hours to try to understand its confusing narrative, but it really kept getting worse.

I don't understand how you can present a liar as a good person, but the main character has the worst main character syndrome I have ever witnessed. "Look how smart we are!"

🧵🧵 Today we revisit the EGRN network.

This thread will provide insight into some of the Institutional Members of the EGRN. As defined by their members page which is now archived.

“Our institutional members are formal organizations, non-profits, companies, agencies, and other legal entities that engage actively in the EGRN outputs and activities.”

What they omit is that many of the members work for the companies listed or have had ties to them in some capacity.

The archived member list link will be provided in the final post on this thread.

This information, as always, is publicly available, and based on the self-reporting done by each individual or entity. This info dump is for educational purposes only and no one should be contacted or harassed. Many of these entities have impressive resumes that I believe should be talked about in an open forum setting.
R U S I

“The Royal United Services Institute”

– recently received $317,000 CAD from Canadian government to partner with EGRN. Several members of the EGRN currently work for RUSI ( co-convener Galen Lamphere-Engund, co-convener Jessica White, admin Petra Regni, Claudia Wallner)


RUSI is the world’s oldest and the UK’s leading defense and security think-tank. Their mission, as defined by their website main page:
is to inform, influence and enhance public debate to help build a safer and more stable world



They focus on all current news, have researchers and staff that do evidence-based research and release relevant papers and studies on defense, security, and international affairs.



As of 8 Feb 2024, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has a page dedicated to a set of questions for RUSI director. There is an image half way down the page showing the RUSI director speaking at the WEF from 17 Jan 2024. The conversation revolved around global conflict currently ongoing.



RUSI’s own website states they co-founded EGRN, which was not brought up in the canadian news and funding, there it stated they were partnered. The EGRN also lists them as an institutional member. There, you will see a variety of articles published, some of which are published through other EGRN institutional members.

.

When you click on the project Examining Radicalisation Through Socialisation in Online Gaming Spaces

It states they are sponsored by: This project is supported by Public Safety Canada

An external partner listed is Dr. Rachel Kowert of Take This Org along with others listed on the EGRN website. Middlebury college is also listed via Alex Newhouse (Middlebury college is who the 669k DHS grant with Take This and Logically AI is under)

RUSI website describes the aims and objects as such:

"The project seeks to provide accessible research analysis, coupled with pragmatic policy recommendations, to contribute to the knowledge base and to increase effectiveness of preventing and countering violent extremism efforts in and through online gaming and gaming-adjacent spaces.
The project team analyses a data set gathered across multiple gaming and gaming-adjacent platforms to investigate if and how the community formation occurring alongside gameplay has the potential to provide a socialising environment conducive to radicalisation to violent extremism. This exploration is conducted using a GBA+ model, with an aim to include analysis of gender and other equity concerns where possible. Ultimately, this project seeks to provide a meta-analysis of multiple popular games, such as Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Call of Duty, as well as gaming-adjacent platforms such as Discord, Twitch, Reddit, and Steam, to identify whether there is potential for harmful socialisation processes in these spaces and how these are formulated through cultural and communicative understanding."canada.ca/en/public-safe…
rusi.org
linkedin.com/company/royal-…
weforum.org/agenda/2024/02…
rusi.org/explore-our-re…

🧵 Today, I will unpack some of the members of the Extremism + Gaming Research Network, the collection of members who were recently awarded over $300k CAD by the Canadian Government. In my previous thread, I highlighted and talked about Dr. Rachel Kowert’s connection to them, but what of some of their other notable members?

Each post after this will provide highlights of their work as well as links to the publicly available information.

Overwhelmingly, there are many “far right extremist” “experts”, with several studying “international far right extremism”. These are the people Dr. Rachel Kowert works with and has access to, and she was the one who wrote the blog post for Take This Org linking the Kotaku article, defending @sweetbabyInc and calling on everyone to “denounce” gamergate and toxicity and hate in gaming.

Dr. Kowert is involved in 2 government grant-funded projects (so far that i know of), one awarding 669k USD from the DHS for a 2 year study, and the second being 317k CAD from the Minister of Public Safety, Dominic LeBlanc, both targeting “extremism and radicalization in gaming and online communities”.

Many of these people also took up their positions in 2021 while also holding other positions.

@ExtremismGaming Galen Lamphere-Englund (co founder of EGRN)



“ I focus on preventing online exploitation by extremist, terrorist, and disinformation actors. I have worked in over 30 countries for United Nations agencies, governments, think tanks, humanitarian and development NGOs, and many of the largest tech platforms. I also co-founded and convene the Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN), a global initiative that brings together more than 120 experts and P/CVE practitioners from the UN, academia, civil society, and the private sector.”

--This is part of their linked in bio to provide framework.

They also have their own consulting firm linked to studying and preventing extremism and are a current Associate Fellow for the Royal United Services Institute- which if you recall, “partnered” with EGRN and was awarded the funding from the Canadian Government.

They also have current ties to the UN, all self reported on Linked In.linkedin.com/in/galenenglun…

🧵🧵 Yesterday, I wrote about @TakeThisOrg and their DHS grant. @Drkowert Dr. Rachel Kowert is a very busy individual.

Canada announced a funding program on March 13 2024 to study violent extremism in video games, so lets unpack today the relationships and connections!

The federal government of Canada has announced more than $300,000 in funding awarded to a group to study how gaming communities can potentially create environments conducive to radicalization and violent extremism via gender-based analysis. The official post from Canada dot CA specifically states they are looking at how misogyny plays a role in extremist ideologies across geography.

Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Safety, has approved this funding and are working with Extremism and Gaming Research Network through a partnership with the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies. The funding provided falls under the Community Resilience Fund- which aims to combat extreme violence in communities in Canada.

What is Extremism and Gaming Research Network? Lets unpack:

EGRN is a research network that aims to uncover how malign actors exploit gaming and inversely, they want to use gaming for good. Started in 2021, they boast more than 60 registered members and include many "top global think tanks and institutions". One of their core mission questions reads as such: How can gamers and gaming platforms be empowered to combat hate and facilitate building positive, resilient communities?

A direct quote from their website front page:

We also act as a bridge from gamer communities and small CSOs developing their own games, all the way to donor governments and international policymakers at the United Nations through the mandated UN Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT) and other mandated UN agencies including UNDP and UNITAR.

Some listed partners:

If you scroll to their membership page, filed under individual members, the 5th one listed is Dr. Rachel Kowert. Other members included are an ADL Belfer Fellow researcher, lecturers from various universities, and various counter terrorism individuals, along with "far right extremist experts".

Under the research tab on the website under 'reports & research papers', they directly link to posts written by Dr. Rachel Kowert, linking to Take This Org and the second article listed is that from the ADL.

On the same page, they talk about conducting the first ever behavioral research within the gaming community of BRAZIL and their involvement with political action.

And you must be asking yourself, how does all of this connect back to @SweetBabyInc? Dr. Kowert authored the blogpost from Take This Org "denouncing" gamergate 2 and linking a @Kotaku article defending SBI.

All links in the following post.


Official announcement from Canada with quotes from the Minister of Public Safety

canada.ca/en/public-safe…

🧵I was quite confused on why I couldn't find @TakeThisOrg on DHS's public records, and that was because they did not file under their business name!

That is because, through (@DrKowert) Dr. Rachal Kowert who wrote the article for Take This and is now private on twitter, is the connection.

According to her website: She partnered with Middlebury College and Logically AI to research "extremist radicalization and recruitment within digital gaming spaces".

What is Logically AI? They "extract insights from across platforms and domains to identify potentially harmful content that can impact election processes, people, and polling locations".

What I thought was an error on my part was only cleared up when I found this old form from Middlebury that is no longer active. I thought they'd have been approved by DHS themselves and was only looking under their business name- I did not think they'd have a college submit the funding request based on how they publicly list it under themselves on their website.

When you read their outline, it is clear what their mission is and they requested a whopping $669,763 USD in funding. They claim to be creating a "framework" to monitor extremist behavior and recruitment in video game communities and claim developers are unaware of these practices.

They claim this is inline with DHS's anti terrorism grant program and planned to use cutting edge research to get to the bottom of this. (So googleforms and twitter)

They use the example of a shooter in NY and state he was part of right wing discords, and also referenced the shooter from NZ who shouted "Subscribe to PewDiePie" and instead of blaming mental health, jump into attributing gaming and discord as the problem.

This was a 2 year research grant and year 1 has been completed. We are now on Year 2. Why does that matter? Well:

Year 1 was about collecting information, which they state they did through leveraging scaled analytical techniques like surveys and "social media intelligence analysis". They also began educational workshops with developers, both single and multiplayer based.

Year 2? They state to establish private and public networks to share information, discuss best practices and open lines of communication regarding extremist trends in games. They also plan to release 3 toolboxes to help detect extremism in games.

Given the language Dr. Kowert used in her article from Take This, I dare say this is all very tied together.

(links will be in the next tweets)


This is the page that links to public records from DHS. Search for 00036 or Middlebury to find the paper I reference above.

dhs.gov/publication/fy…