Senator Questions Valve: Why Are There So Many Nazis on Steam?

A U.S. Senator, Mark Warner, has sent a letter to Valve's CEO, Gabe Newell, inquiring about the company’s intentions to reduce extremist content on the Steam platform. In his letter, Warner cites a report from the Anti-Defamation League that revealed the existence of numerous user accounts and groups created by users promoting extremist ideologies, such as anti-Semitism, Nazism, white supremacy, and gender and sexuality-based hate.

The content of the letter provides an overview of the type of hateful material found on Steam. It mentions that there are approximately 40,000 groups whose names include offensive terms, highlighting some like "1488," "shekel," and "white power." Warner points out that the abundance of this type of content contravenes the platform's own online conduct policies, which explicitly prohibit "promoting real-world violence" and the posting or uploading of "illegal or inappropriate content."

Content moderation has been a recurring topic on Steam. Valve only began moderating its video game discussion forums in 2018, after having previously delegated this responsibility to developers. Warner's letter is the third that Congress has sent to Valve in the past three years, requesting the company to be held accountable for the extremist content that has proliferated on the platform. So far, Valve has not publicly responded to these letters.

While Warner warns Valve about "increased scrutiny from the federal government" if effective measures are not taken against hate content, First Amendment protections make it difficult for the government to penalize companies for hosting legal speech, even if it is hateful. The letter also includes a series of questions about Valve’s current enforcement practices, the size of its moderation team, and the steps they plan to take in the future to limit such content. Warner has requested a response before December 13. Valve has not commented on the matter.