Report reveals that Steam is filled with racist posts and images.
The images that the Anti-Defamation League discovered on Steam Community contained references to foreign terrorist groups such as ISIS.
The Valve Steam store is not just a place to purchase video games online, but it has also become an active community of gamers. However, a troubling rise in the publication of hateful, racist, and anti-Semitic content in the Steam community section has recently been reported, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League.
The study revealed that there are 1.83 million unique pieces of "extremist or hateful content" generated by 1.5 million different users across 73,824 groups. This content includes "explicit anti-Semitic symbols" and thousands of instances of users showing support for foreign terrorist groups. Additionally, a concerning number of “copypastas” were identified, with more than half containing variations of the Nazi swastika.
Moreover, a significant number of avatars on Steam were found to contain hate symbols. Researchers discovered 827,758 users employing racist or extremist images in their avatars, including characters like Pepe the Frog in a Nazi context, swastikas, and symbols associated with white supremacist groups. There were also 15,129 avatars displaying images of flags or emblems of terrorist groups, most notably related to ISIS.
The report also revealed images that "glorify violent extremists" and hate crimes. References and photos related to tragedies like the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand and the stabbing of five people in Eskisehir, Turkey, carried out by a young man carrying neo-Nazi symbolism, were found.
Even the “Collections” and “Mods” sections on the platform contained hundreds of modifications featuring hate imagery. An unknown user, referencing the Christchurch shooter Brian Tarrant, created a collection in the game Garry's Mod that mimicked his outfit and posted screenshots suggesting that the character was killing Muslims, just as Tarrant did in 2019. Other users also produced maps in Garry's Mod that celebrated tragedies like the Columbine High School shooting and the Tops supermarket shooting in Buffalo, which generated additional racist comments.
The Anti-Defamation League has accused Valve, the owner of Steam, of not acting firmly enough to eliminate or restrict the use of these images in its communities. The report criticizes Valve for taking a "highly permissive approach to content policy," only taking action in "notable and rare cases." According to the report, "Steam has selectively removed extremist content, often in response to government pressure or based on reports, but this has been primarily on an ad hoc basis, failing to systematically address the issue of extremism and hate on the platform."
Attempts to contact Valve for a comment on the Anti-Defamation League's report have been made.
