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For many years, Steam has struggled with content moderation. In 2018, Valve introduced moderation to its video game discussion boards, which it had previously left to the developers.
That is why in a letter to Valve CEO Gabe Newell, US Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) inquired as to whether the company plans to take action to restrict extremist content on Steam.
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Thelettercites an Anti-Defamation League report that found numerous user accounts and user-made groups on the PC gaming platform “that glorified antisemitic, Nazi, white supremacist, gender-and sexuality-based hate, and other extremist ideologies.”
A high-level overview of the type of hateful content the ADL discovered on Steam is provided in the letter. Among these are“40,000 groups with names that contained hateful words, the most common being ‘1488,’shekel,’and ‘white power.'”
Warner’s letter emphasizes how Steam’s online conduct policy, which specifically forbids“encouraging real-world violence”and posting or uploading“illegal or inappropriate content,”is violated by the apparent abundance of hateful content on the platform. The letter reads:
It is reasonable to question how committed Valve is to effectively implement and enforce Valve’s own, self-created Conduct Policy for its users.
Over the past three years, Congress has written to Valve three times, including Warner, requesting an explanation for the proliferation of extremist content on Steam. These letters have not yet received a public response from Valve. The recent letter can also becomea huge setback for the upcoming Steam Deck 2.
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First Amendment rights prohibit the government from penalizing businesses for hosting lawful, albeit hateful, speech, even though Warner’s letter threatens Valve with“more intense scrutiny from the federal government”if it does not take significant action against hate content.
A list of inquiries concerning the company’s enforcement procedures, the size of its moderation staff, and future plans to curtail hateful content are included at the end of Warner’s letter to Valve. Warner has requested a response by December 13th at the latest.
Huge Concerns Regarding Steam
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a group established to fight antisemitism and other types of discrimination, its dataset contained 610 million comments, 152 million profile and group avatar images, and over 458 million profiles.
Swastikas and Pepe the Frog are said to be the most prevalent extremist symbols on the platform, making up 9.1% and 54.6% of the detected symbols, respectively.
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According to the ADL, it also discovered 15,000 public accounts with profile pictures that featured ISIS, Hezbollah, and Hamas symbols. Additionally, the group asserts that it detected“hundreds of accounts”by utilizing photos of terrorists such as Anders Breivik, who in 2011 attacked a Norwegian summer camp, killing 69 people.
The group also brought attention to instances where users post content associated with extremism on Steam before carrying out violent acts in real life, like the August attack on a Turkish cafe by an 18-year-old white supremacist.
Nilendu Brahma
Articles Published :690
A Marvel, Linkin Park, Cricket, and Barcelona fan who just wants to write and write about video games and stuff. If you want to meet me, you’re able to find me in my room failing to hit the opposite Jett with the operator for six consecutive rounds.
