Steam is a 'unsafe place for teens and young adult': US Senator warns Gabe Newell that the government will 'intensify its scrutiny' if Valve does not take action against extremist material

US Senator Mark Warren sent a letter to Gabe Newell, the boss of Valve, asking what the company was doing to combat the rise in extremist content. He also warned of further "scrutiny," from the government, if Valve didn't comply.

Warner wrote that he had previously brought to his attention the fact that extremist ideologies seemed to find a home in Steam (via The Verge). "In 2022 Valve received a Senate Letter identifying nearly similar activity on your platform. Two years later, it appears that Valve continues to take a 'hands-off' approach to content moderating that favors allowing certain users to engage in prolonged bouts of disturbing, violent rhetoric, rather than ensuring that all users can find a safe and welcoming environment across its platform."

The 2022 Senate Letter, authored by US Senator Maggie Hassan and cited by Warner, stated that Steam had "a significant number of users displaying or espousing neo Nazi, extremists, racial superiority, misogynistic and other hateful feelings," and requested a report on what Valve was doing about it. Warner's letter in this regard is very similar, acknowledging Steam has an online conduct policy, and a subscriber agreement. However, Warner questions Valve's commitment to actually enforcing the policy.

"As Black Friday approaches and the holiday shopping season approaches, it is important that the American public understands that Steam is not only a dangerous place for teens and young people to buy and play online games but that, without a change to Valve's user moderation policy and the type behavior that is welcomed on its platform, Steam plays a role in allowing harmful ideology to spread and take hold among the next generation," Warner wrote.

Warner also warned, in a somewhat ominous manner, that if Valve did not adopt industry-standard moderating practices - whatever that means - it would "face more intense scrutiny by the federal government for their complicity in allowing hatred groups to congregate, and engage in activities which undoubtedly put Americans at risk."

Irony is a part of the complaint. Elon Musk, after all, turned Twitter into a place for racist and far-right speech, and now he's getting a high position in the new US government. It's not clear what the US Government could do to force Valve to change its mind. "Hate Speech" in the US, is protected by the First Amendment. And as a privately-held company, Valve isn't subject to pressure from shareholders who may not be comfortable with the permissive approach.

In a 2018 report on Valve's "hate group problem", we said that Steam's problem is not so much the absence of rules as the failure to enforce them. Valve updated Steam's community rules in 2023 with a more detailed breakdown of what is and isn’t allowed, but enforcement (or lack thereof) remains an issue. In a report we published in 2018 on Valve's "hate groups problem", we said that Steam's issue is not so much the lack of rules, but the failure to enforce those rules. Valve updated Steam’s community rules in the year 2023 with more detailed information about what is and isn’t allowed. But enforcement (or the lack thereof) is still an issue.

Warner's letter ends with a list of 10 questions. Some of these are multi-parts, and cover broad topics such as enforcement practices, to more granular things like internal definitions of words, the number content moderators at Steam, and commitments made by the company "to ensure it has meaningfully curbed racist, antisemitic terroristic, Nazi homophobic transphobic misogynist and hateful content before November 15, 2025."

The Senator has requested a response before December 13. I've contacted Valve to get a comment. I will update this post if I hear back.