Senator Mark Warner Calls on Valve to Address Extremist Content on Steam
United Stats Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) has penned an open letter to Valve, the company behind Steam, addressing concerns about extremist content on the popular online platform.
Warner, along with a report from the ADL, highlighted the presence of over 1 million users and around 100,000 groups on Steam that promote hateful ideologies such as antisemitism, Nazism, white supremacy, and more.
Comparing Steam to other social media sites, Warner emphasized the importance of creating a safe and welcoming environment for users, free from harassment and abuse.
“We have seen on other social networking platforms that lax enforcement of user conduct agreements leads to toxic environments. You should want your users to not have to wonder if they will face abuse,” Warner stated.
Valve’s hands-off approach to moderation, attributed to the platform’s vast user base of over 132 million worldwide, has raised concerns about the presence of harmful content.
While Warner’s intentions have faced skepticism, with some linking his actions to financial ties with companies like Disney, he has urged Valve to respond to his inquiries by December 13 or face potential government scrutiny.
- Valve’s current practices for enforcing terms of service.
- Definitions used by Valve for key behaviors in the Conduct Policy.
- Data on user complaints related to policy violations and Valve’s actions in response.
- Number of human moderators on Steam and their roles.
- Valve’s measures to combat extremist and hateful content.
- Commitments from Steam to address harmful content by November 15, 2025.
- Transparency measures for informing users about content moderation actions.
- Details on Valve’s content moderation practices during a specific period.
- Evaluation frequency of content moderation practices related to extremism.
- Policy decisions by Steam/Valve impacting content moderation.
Valve’s previous actions in censoring content have drawn criticism, contradicting their initial stance on banning only “illegal” or “trolling” games.
