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’.” Warner’s letter highlights how the apparent preponderance of hateful content on Steam is in violation of the platform’s own online conduct policy, which explicitly prohibits “encouraging real-world violence” and posting or uploading “illegal or inappropriate content.”
“It is reasonable to question how committed Valve is to effectively implement and enforce Valve’s own, self-created Conduct Policy for its users,” the letter reads.
Content moderation has long been an issue for Steam. Valve only implemented moderation of its video game discussion boards in 2018 after previously leaving the responsibility to the developers themselves. Warner’s letter is the third sent by Congress to Valve over the last three years asking the company to answer for the extremist content that has proliferated on Steam. So far, Valve has not publicly responded to these letters. And though Warner’s letter threatens Valve with “more intense scrutiny from the federal government” if it fails to take meaningful action against hate content, First Amendment protections prevent the government from punishing companies for hosting legal — albeit hateful — speech.
Warner’s letter to Valve concludes with a list of questions about the company’s current enforcement practices, the size of its moderation team, and what steps it’ll take in the future to limit hateful content. Warner has asked for a response no later than December 13th. Valve has not responded to The Verge’s request for comment.
