“If you’re on this sub, you’re on every watchlist possible.” An open-source investigation into the gamification of terrorism on Reddit’s user-run forum r/unexpectedjihad

Abstract: This study investigates the emerging phenomenon of gamification of terrorism, understood as the exploitation of video games mechanics and aesthetics to radicalize, proliferate propaganda and produce terror. Through an open-source ethnographic exploration of the “r/unexpectedjihad” community on Reddit, it attempts to answer how and to what extent violent jihadi sympathizers are gamifying terror in a digital setting. Data harvested from the subreddit underwent thematic analysis and was dissected for symptoms of gamification. Subsequently, two themes, Playfulness and Propaganda, were drawn, which allowed the researcher to decipher the means and methods used to disperse, ritualize, or even fetishize violence within the community. This thesis argues that “r/unexpectedjihad” acted as a perpetual terror gamification machine where users shared gamified propaganda and interacted with it in gamified ways. At last, it extends the glossary of gamification by introducing a new piece of vocabulary describing the observed mechanisms of propagating terror.