<p>Critical digital rights battles over privacy, free speech and anonymity are increasingly being fought in video games, a growing market that is becoming a "new political arena," experts and insiders said on Thursday.</p>.<p>With the industry set to more than double annual revenues to $300 billion by 2025, questions about how video game operators, designers and governments handle sensitive issues take on added urgency, said participants at RightsCon, a virtual digital rights conference.</p>.<p>In recent months, a Hong Kong activist staged a protest against Beijing's rule inside a popular social simulator game called Animal Crossing, and a member of the US Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, campaigned in the game as well.</p>.<p>The game Minecraft, meanwhile, has been used to circumvent censorship, with groups using it to create digital libraries and smuggle banned texts into repressive countries.</p>.<p>“Video games have become this new political arena," said Micaela Mantegna, founder of GeekyLegal, an Argentinian group that focuses on tech policy.</p>.<p>Also, game designers have been tackling sensitive topics by creating games that involve issues such as refugees or mental illness.</p>.<p>“Video games are a powerful way to start talking about topics that are hard to engage in real life,” said Stephanie Zucarelli, a board member of Women in Games Argentina, a non-profit group.</p>.<p>User rights can be at risk, however, of being violated, said Kurt Opsah, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.</p>.<p>Law enforcement can ask game companies their users’ personal data, operating companies can censor game users and governments can pressure game operators and makers to remove content, he said.</p>.<p>He cited an example of the US military deleting critical comments that had been posted on recruitment channels it hosted on Twitch, a popular streaming platform.</p>.<p>"They didn’t want people to have an anti-military view on their recruiting channel,” he said.</p>.<p>Governments can apply pressure on video game companies, he said, such as the case of Activision Blizzard Entertainment that last year suspended a player from a video game competition for making political comments about Hong Kong in an interview.</p>.<p>Blizzard is partly owned by Chinese gaming giant Tencent Holdings.</p>
<p>Critical digital rights battles over privacy, free speech and anonymity are increasingly being fought in video games, a growing market that is becoming a "new political arena," experts and insiders said on Thursday.</p>.<p>With the industry set to more than double annual revenues to $300 billion by 2025, questions about how video game operators, designers and governments handle sensitive issues take on added urgency, said participants at RightsCon, a virtual digital rights conference.</p>.<p>In recent months, a Hong Kong activist staged a protest against Beijing's rule inside a popular social simulator game called Animal Crossing, and a member of the US Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, campaigned in the game as well.</p>.<p>The game Minecraft, meanwhile, has been used to circumvent censorship, with groups using it to create digital libraries and smuggle banned texts into repressive countries.</p>.<p>“Video games have become this new political arena," said Micaela Mantegna, founder of GeekyLegal, an Argentinian group that focuses on tech policy.</p>.<p>Also, game designers have been tackling sensitive topics by creating games that involve issues such as refugees or mental illness.</p>.<p>“Video games are a powerful way to start talking about topics that are hard to engage in real life,” said Stephanie Zucarelli, a board member of Women in Games Argentina, a non-profit group.</p>.<p>User rights can be at risk, however, of being violated, said Kurt Opsah, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.</p>.<p>Law enforcement can ask game companies their users’ personal data, operating companies can censor game users and governments can pressure game operators and makers to remove content, he said.</p>.<p>He cited an example of the US military deleting critical comments that had been posted on recruitment channels it hosted on Twitch, a popular streaming platform.</p>.<p>"They didn’t want people to have an anti-military view on their recruiting channel,” he said.</p>.<p>Governments can apply pressure on video game companies, he said, such as the case of Activision Blizzard Entertainment that last year suspended a player from a video game competition for making political comments about Hong Kong in an interview.</p>.<p>Blizzard is partly owned by Chinese gaming giant Tencent Holdings.</p>