Google’s YouTube unveiled a new policy in its latest attempt to clean up the content of the popular video platform. The policy bans videos “alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion,” as well as those that deny violent events happened, such as the Holocaust or the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Discrimination includes age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation and veteran status. With this policy in place, YouTube has begun to remove thousands of videos to rid its site of bigotry, extremism and hate speech. Continue reading YouTube Enacts Policy to Ban Noxious Videos, Hate Speech

After Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues debated for weeks what to do about Alex Jones’ far-right, conspiracy-focused Infowars, Zuckerberg finally made the decision to ban Infowars content from the platform. Jones has millions of followers who endorse theories such as the Sandy Hook massacre being a hoax enacted by gun-control supporters. Prior to Facebook’s ban, company execs gave vague, unsatisfactory answers to questions from lawmakers and journalists. Meanwhile, Twitter execs have also been debating Infowars, but for now have opted not to ban Jones’ content. Continue reading Facebook, Twitter and Other Platforms Struggle With Infowars

Republican lawmaker Diane Franklin of the Missouri House of Representatives is calling for a sales tax on all violent video games in response to the recent elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Her proposal is to put a one percent sales tax on such games, after which all proceeds would go to “finance mental health programs and law enforcement measures to curb mass shootings,” details KSDK. Continue reading Lawmaker Introduces Another Proposed Tax on Violent Games

On the heels of Vice President Joe Biden’s announcement to establish a gun control task force, Kris Graft, the editor-in-chief of video game trade publication Gamasutra, wrote an editorial decrying the inclusion of members of the video game industry. His editorial criticized “the games industry for allowing itself to be implicated in debates about mass shootings in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre,” writes The Atlantic. Continue reading Should Video Games Be Part of Gun Violence Conversation?