Valve must address swastikas and other hate on Steam, writes US senator in a letter to Gabe Newell

rockpapershotgun.com:

A senator for the US government has urged Valve to answer complaints about the amount of racist, sexist and otherwise hateful posts and imagery shared by users on Steam. The digital store was the subject of a report by the Anti-Defamation League last week, which claimed to find millions of examples of "hateful or extremist" language and images hosted on Steam's community. These include things like Nazi symbols in profile pictures, white supremacist slogans in group names, and yet more discriminatory spew in user posts. The senator has noticed this report, and now writes directly to Gabe Newell, demanding that Valve "bring its content moderation practices in line with industry standards" or risk "intense scrutiny" from the government.

In the letter, Democrat senator Mark Warner argues that Valve's content moderation doesn't meet industry standards, and says he wants Valve to "crack down on the rampant proliferation of hate-based content".

The exact hateful stuff he's talking about was highlighted in that report by the Anti-Defamation League last week. Its many findings include swastikas in profile pictures, antisemitic images such as the "happy merchant", and instances of Pepe the frog, a meme appropriated by the far right that - let's be honest - has never washed the stink off. Steam is "inundated with hate" as a result of these findings, say the anti-discrimination group.

While the simmering bubbles of fascism won't be news to the average Steam user (or average internet user, to be frank) that doesn't mean we ought to get complacent about them. It's proof, says senator Warner, that Valve is lacking good moderation.

"Until now, Steam has largely not received its due attention as a de facto major social network where its users engage in many of the same activities expected of a social media platform,” said Warner. "It is reasonable to question how committed Valve is to effectively implement and enforce Valve’s own, self-created Conduct Policy for its users," said