The Enemy Hates Best?: toxicity in League of Legends and Its Content Moderation Implications

In recent decades, many sectors of our society have been digitized, and much of our life has moved to cyberspace, especially in terms of entertainment. Users meet, relate, and cooperate in the new public space that is the internet and form digital communities. Video games play a leading role in the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Aguerri, Jesús C. (Author)
Contributors: Santisteban, Mario ; Miró Llinares, Fernando
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2023
In: European journal on criminal policy and research
Year: 2023, Volume: 29, Issue: 3, Pages: 437-456
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Rights Information:CC BY 4.0
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Keywords:
Content moderation
Cyberspace
Disruptive behavior
League of Legends
Toxicity
Video Games
Description
Summary:In recent decades, many sectors of our society have been digitized, and much of our life has moved to cyberspace, especially in terms of entertainment. Users meet, relate, and cooperate in the new public space that is the internet and form digital communities. Video games play a leading role in the formation of such communities. However, these communities also present antisocial behaviors, ranging from disruptive actions to harassment and hate speech. Such behaviors, encompassed under the umbrella term toxicity, are a major concern for both users and those in charge of moderating these spaces. This article focuses on toxicity in today’s leading online video game League of Legends. Three hundred twenty-eight matches were reviewed using a system of two judges to study the prevalence of these problematic behaviors. We find that 70% of matches were affected by disruptive behavior. Nevertheless, only 10.9% of the analyzed matches were exclusively affected by downright harmful behavior. In our view, the results have relevant implications for content moderation policy that are also addressed in this paper.
Item Description:Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 453-456
ISSN:1572-9869
DOI:10.1007/s10610-023-09541-1