Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire has written an open letter to Steam proprietor Gabe Newell in regards to the quantity of neo-Nazi and white supremacist content material on the platform.
Beginning the letter, Hassan mentioned (by way of Vice): “I write right this moment relating to extremist content material on the Steam online game digital distribution service.”
“As the most important digital distribution platform for video video games, Steam has large home and world attain and is utilized by gamers of all ages,” she continued. “Disturbingly, Steam has a major presence of customers displaying and espousing neo-Nazi, extremist, misogynistic and different hateful sentiments.”
The letter then lists examples of neo-Nazi slogans, white supremacist name indicators and “using pictures related to the Third Reich” present in Steam communities and account names.
“Valve ought to be taking steps to forestall dangerous content material, particularly given the connection between on-line feedback and violence within the offline world,” she added.
It comes as earlier this 12 months, each Twitch and Discord have been investigated for the function they performed within the racially-motivated mass capturing in Buffalo, which claimed the lives of ten individuals.
Previous to the assault, it was confirmed that the killer used Discord to advertise their plan alongside white supremacist theories, in addition they used the platform to debate potential predominantly Black places to hold out their assault as nicely.
Sharing the letter on Twitter, Hassan wrote: “Online game platforms generally is a cesspool for extremism – and I’m calling for fast motion. Valve can not proceed to let hateful ideologies flourish on-line. It’s dangerous to customers of all ages and may result in very actual threats of bodily violence.”
Online game platforms generally is a cesspool for extremism – and I’m calling for fast motion.
Valve can not proceed to let hateful ideologies flourish on-line. It’s dangerous to customers of all ages and may result in very actual threats of bodily violence. https://t.co/B1DTQx9TZv
— Sen. Maggie Hassan (@SenatorHassan) December 16, 2022
The letter went on to ask Steam’s proprietor Valve questions on moderation and whether or not it had particular guidelines in place to take care of user-generated content material with “extremist, racist, antisemitic, gender-based harassment or homophobic” messages. Valve has been given a deadline of January 15, 2023 to reply, although it’s but to remark.
Final month, EA was compelled to implement a number of “important updates” to The Sims 4‘s profanity filter after a collection of pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic content material was uploaded to the gallery.