In the letter, Democrat senator Mark Warner argues that Valve’s content moderation doesn’t meet industry standards, and says he wants Valve to “crack down on the rampant proliferation of hate-based content”.

The exact hateful stuff he’s talking about was highlighted in that report by the Anti-Defamation League last week. Its many findings include swastikas in profile pictures, antisemitic images such as the “happy merchant”, and instances of Pepe the frog, a meme appropriated by the far right that - let’s be honest - has never washed the stink off. Steam is “inundated with hate” as a result of these findings, say the anti-discrimination group.

While the simmering bubbles of fascism won’t be news to the average Steam user (or average internet user, to be frank) that doesn’t mean we ought to get complacent about them. It’s proof, says senator Warner, that Valve is lacking good moderation.

  • Buttons@programming.dev
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    5 days ago

    You literally just need to go into the discussion boards for trending games or check out the curation pages for groups like “DEI watch.”

    I just spent 10 minutes doing both of these things and didn’t see any questionable content.

    I did see gamers saying things like “this game sucks”, but nothing worse.

    At this point I think you should provide a link to an example.