Gaming

Curious what industry standard Senator Warner is judging Valve against because a social media site, which Warner is comparing Valve to, being filled with Nazis and the far right feels like the standard, even if some sites at better at quarantining them than others. Also, "intense scrutiny" from Congress is kind of an empty threat at the best of times, but especially when Congress is about to be run by the sort of people who aren't going to see this as a problem.

Whataboutism to avoid the conversation talking about Twitter

Whatever the result in, I wish there won't be over-moderation that too Western-centric.

Not all swastika are Nazi (I live in a country where swastika is simply symbol of religion and peacefulness). Not all words that too similar with offending word in English are bad (some games literally banned Indonesian for having "nasi goreng" as their name, too similiar with Nazi they said.)

Get rid of actual fascist imagery and references? Yes please. That shit is rampant.

Get rid of fucking Pepe? ..Are you kidding? Way to make yourself and your argument seem fully out of touch. Yeah, sure, there was a point when Pepe was being coopted by right-wingers, but at this point? Like.. have you been on discord once ever? Everybody uses Peepo. Moreover, half my trans friends use D&D emojis derived directly from Peepo.

People pointing fingers at Pepe are literally taking the bait and making themselves look less credible, which was presumably the point of it being adopted by assholes to begin with. That fight is over and we won and took it back. Yeesh.

What industry standards is he talking about here? Steam code of conduct only says you must engage in lawful behaviour. There's no American law banning far-right symbols. There's no doubt Steam has a content moderation issue and I would love to see those things go as well. But unless there's some kind of law then Valve is just going to ignore this problem like they've done in the past.

I have never seen a swastika on steam... how do you guys find them? I have come across "git gud" idiots and met one single nazi on there. What in the world are you people up to?

instances of Pepe the frog, a meme appropriated by the far right

LOl, get outta here. I use pepe all the time. It's a friggin' frog. I won't let the far right take him away from me. Fuck off.

Steam has had, for a long time already, a massive far-right community. Browse its communities and you'll see the most deranged racist, transphobic, homophobic posters. The entire SweetBaby harassment campaign started - and as far as I know, is still going - thanks to a huge Steam curator, and there are even more "Anti-Woke" groups explicitly dedicated to harassing minorities. Last year, Hogwarts Legacy had a intense campaign and won the Best Game on Steam Deck award due to the brigading of these "anti-woke" fans - and you most likely can still look into its community to witness their efforts - and there are still those on the Tabletop Simulator communities that are outspoken about the devs "bending the knee" by removing global chat from their game in an effort to reduce harassment against queer people.

Basically, its a cesspool of the worst gaming has to offer, but none of this affects Valve's bottom line, who continues their usual business practice: Don't interfere and do the minimum amount of work. Is it illegal? Perhaps not. But their inaction makes it clear that this is a safe spot for hateful conduct.

I think the issue is possibly rooted deeper than just usage on steam. I mean I know steam could/SHOULD do more to fight it, but I mean...has said US senator looked at the newly elected government and the people that voted for said government? I mean damn dude.

The rot is deep and is very soon going to be considered "default" behavior.

Swastikas, okay. Happy merchant, sure. But how is Pepe an alt right symbol now? I read half of an article about it which seems to conclude that it depends on the context the meme is being used in. If it's by a nazi in their username, it's a nazi symbol, wow. To me this feels like "serial killers often ate bread for breakfast, so all of Germany is now a dogwhistle for serial killers."

Imagine taking the ADL seriously.