Senator Mark Warner’s letter follows an ADL report about extremist content on the platform.
US Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) has sent a letter to Valve CEO Gabe Newell asking if the company intends to take measures to curtail extremist content on Steam. The letter references a report by the Anti-Defamation League that identified a large number of user accounts and user-created groups “that glorified antisemitic, Nazi, white supremacist, gender- and sexuality-based hate, and other extremist ideologies” on the PC gaming platform.
The letter features a high-level view of the kind of hateful content the ADL found on Steam. That includes “40,000 groups with names that included hateful words, with the most prominent being ‘1488,’ ‘shekel,’ and ‘white power’.”
Fine, but this guy just teed himself up perfectly for Gabe to come back with, “What’s with all the Nazis in your senate?”
Nazis do not just spring fully formed in the Aristotelian tradition from nothing specifically into the Steam forums. All of these motherfuckers are actual people with actual odious viewpoints. A lot of them probably voted for your colleagues. Maybe a better question is, “Why are there still Nazis, and what do we do about it?”
Social welfare programs, like in Nordic countries. Fascists have been exploiting the poor for their rise to power for eons.
Yes. We 100% need this, badly. But fascism has been on the rise even in countries with strong social programs like Germany and France, so you really can’t blame this entirely on capitalism run rampant, though it certainly fanned the flames and needs to be addressed.
I think a bigger part of the problem is silicon valley fomenting fear and outrage for profits. Tech bros like Elon Musk and Zucc the Succ are manufacturing this crisis because it makes them ungodly amounts of money, power, and influence.
Germany and France are fucked by neoliberals so the problem remains
Sure but a game of whataboutism isn’t a strong argument. If Steam has a Nazi problem they should be outlining how they’re fixing it. They can definitely compare themselves to other platforms, but you lead with what YOU’RE doing. If the majority are coming from Twitter you can point that out. But at the end of the day either prove how you’re fixing it or why it isn’t as big of a problem as stated.
They sure do have a lot of leeway on steam. It’s time we recognize that it’s a form of social media with the same real-world consequences.