If there’s one thing people unanimously hate, it’s government overreach. The government hasn’t received this memo apparently, with Virginia’s senator Mike Warner sending a demand to Valve and CEO Gabe Newell to crack down on the hateful rhetoric that takes place on the online gaming client Steam, which Valve manages. You can read the full letter’s request here.
I write to you today regarding the hate and extremism that has recently been identified on your gaming digital distribution and social networking platform Steam. Recently, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a report where ADL identified over 1 million unique user accounts and nearly 100,000 user-created groups that glorified antisemitic, Nazi, white supremacist, gender- and sexuality-based hate, and other extremist ideologies on Valve’s Steam platform.
The ADL report Senator Warner is referring to can be found here. Senator Warner also brings up the previous attempt by the Senate to convince Steam to crack down on its user base.
It has been brought to your attention before that extremist ideologies seem to find a home on Steam. In 2022, Valve received a Senate letter identifying nearly identical activity on your platform, and yet two years later it appears that Valve has chosen to continue a ‘hands off’-type approach to content moderation that favors allowing some users to engage in sustained bouts of disturbing and violent rhetoric rather than ensure that all of its users can find a welcoming and safe environment across your platform.
Warner then proceeds to make a demand of Steam, to answer various questions regarding Steam’s policies towards hate speech as well as its terms of service and how Steam can be better improve as a more family friendly platform. Likely, the result of this letter will be much the same as the aforementioned letter sent in 2022, in that Valve and Newell will continue with their hands off approach. Though that hasn’t stopped the gaming community from recognizing this attempt by the senator to censor one of their platforms, an almost direct threat against free speech itself, and they’ve responded as you might expect.