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Fact check: The DHS choose to fund the organization, Take This, a blatantly biased and anti-gamer company that sent letters to companies demanding they denounce "Gamergate 2".
1. Summary of the results
The statement contains both accurate and misleading elements. The Department of Homeland Security did indeed fund Take This, specifically with a $699,763 grant [1] [1]. However, this was part of a larger research collaboration that also included the Middlebury Institute and Logically [1]. The funding's purpose was specifically to research extremism and potential terrorist activities in gaming spaces, with the goal of developing best practices for monitoring and preventing extremist exploitation in gaming environments [1].
2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints
Several important contextual elements are missing from the original statement:
- Take This is not a small "anti-gamer" organization, but rather a mental health nonprofit with board members from major gaming companies including Bethesda, Ubisoft, and PlayStation [2]
- The grant is part of a broader research project titled "Disrupting Video Games-Based Radicalization Through Collaborative Cross-Sector Networks" [2]
- The organization's work focuses on studying hate, harassment, and radicalization in gaming communities, rather than being "anti-gamer" [1]
3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement
The original statement contains several potentially misleading elements:
- The characterization of Take This as "blatantly biased and anti-gamer" is not supported by the available sources. Instead, the organization is described as a mental health nonprofit working within the gaming industry [1]
- While the statement implies impropriety in DHS funding the organization, the sources indicate this was part of a legitimate research grant with clear objectives [1] [1]
- The statement oversimplifies the "Gamergate 2" situation - while Take This did publish a blog post about it and called for denouncing harassment, this appears to be part of their broader work on addressing harassment in gaming communities [2]
The framing of this issue appears to benefit those who oppose research into extremism in gaming spaces, while potentially undermining legitimate efforts to study and address harassment and radicalization in gaming communities.