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[Sophist]

Lately, a few of us here noticed how the Steam forums were going crazy, well...

Steam-Powered Hate: Top Gaming Site Rife with Extremism & Antisemitism

In a new study, the ADL Center on Extremism found 1.8+ million unique pieces of extremist or hateful content on Steam.

www.adl.org

from the article:

• 1.83 million unique pieces of extremist or hateful content, including explicitly antisemitic symbols like the “happy merchant” and Nazi imagery like the Totenkopf, swastika, sonnenrad and others. This also includes tens of thousands of instances of users expressing support for foreign terrorist organizations like Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Hamas and others.
• 1.5 million unique users and 73,824 groups who used at least one potentially extremist or hateful symbol, copypasta or keyword on the platform.
• 1.18 million unique instances of potentially extremist and hateful copypastas, 54 percent (634,749) of which were white supremacist and 4.68 percent (55,109) were antisemitic. The most popular copypastas were, by far, variations of swastikas, at 51 percent.
• 827,758 user and group profiles with avatars that contained extremist or hateful symbols.

The article also has a few examples of hateful avatars which mostly are Pepe the frog dressed as a nazi.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Trying to cancel Steam is going to go about as well for the wokies as you can expect

 

[Gonzito]

I agree that the Steam forums have become a joke lately. It's impossible to have a normal conversation there specially new releases

People tend to praise Steam as if it was a holly place but this company has failed hard when it comes to control their forums

 

[Sophist]

For people who have never seen the Steam's off-topic forum, it's here:

Off Topic

steamcommunity.com

 

[Pop]

So less than 1% of the users

Nothing burger

 

[nial]

Trying to cancel Steam is going to go about as well for the wokies as you can expect

No one is really cancelling Steam, though? It's just the forums that seem to be dogshit.
That being said, I'm finding most of these to be pretty tame; but I haven't seen them all, so don't take what I say too seriously.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Frankly, I'm not interested in the ADL's opinion on anything at this point.

 

[Gaiff]

I agree that the Steam forums have become a joke lately. It's impossible to have a normal conversation there specially new releases

People tend to praise Steam as if it was a holly place but this company has failed hard when it comes to control their forums

Lately? The place has been a cesspool for years.

 

[JimboJones]

I'd rather have them than not, they have helped me more than a few times, particularly with older games that might have issues.
Some of the takes on the other forum just devolves into calling Gabe a nazi recommending Epic then another user informing that actually Tim Sweeney is also a nazi .

 

[FunkMiller]

Absolutely nothing of value would be lost by closing the Steam community pages.

 

[Sophist]

So less than 1% of the users

Nothing burger

Maybe 1% of the total user-base but, from my experience, it's much more than 1% of the user-base that is active on Steam social features (Steam is also a social network, now).

 

[Crayon]

I would imagine a lot of those forums are real fuckshops. There's so many that a ton have to be more or less unattended.

 

[kevboard]

look at my nazi imagery according to the ADL!

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

I'd rather have them than not, they have helped me more than a few times, particularly with older games that might have issues.
Some of the takes on the other forum just devolves into calling Gabe a nazi recommending Epic then another user informing that actually Tim Sweeney is also a nazi .

Agreed, while it would be nice if there's more talk about games. I'll still rather it be open like this rather than the forums controlled by the crazy woke lunatics any day.

 

[JimboJones]

look at my nazi imagery according to the ADL!

Stop it!

 

[Hrk69]

For people who have never seen the Steam's off-topic forum, it's here:

Off Topic

steamcommunity.com

Bookmarked

 

[kevboard]

Stop it!

PEPE IS GONNA GET YOU!

 

[Sophist]

Maybe Valve should implement a system for community moderation, like the community notes on twitter or upvote/downvote of replies.
edit: by community moderation, i meant moderation by the community itself.

 

[xenosys]

I immediately lost interest when I seen they classed Pepe as a hate symbol.

These people are still living in 2016.

 

[ssringo]

Right now the study just says about 1% of the userbase engages in this activity. Scratch that. The study just says "scary big number!" because it looks worse that way. Incomplete data.

Also, if their "HateVision" AI can detect all this stuff, why not set it up to report it for moderation as well? Every time I've reported someone or something it's been dealt with in a few days. I'd be far more interested in a study about how often this stuff gets reported and nothing is done. That's a number that might spur some action.

 

[March Climber]

Steam community should have just been for game tips and troubleshooting only.

The minute the floodgates opened with such miniscule amount of moderation, anyone could see where things would be headed.

 

[DaciaJC]

This is the definition of a nothingburger.

 

[Superkewl]

 

[Revolutionary]

Like 50% of Twitch emotes are some variation of Pepe, and they still want us to believe it's a nazi symbol? lol

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Don't worry fellow German users, the government is making sure that every little bit of anime titties is being banned in our country. Children are safe!

 

[GHG]

Absolutely nothing of value would be lost by closing the Steam community pages.

Not true at all. I've discovered tons of fixes for various issues via their discussion boards. It's best to just do a search for the issue you're having so that you don't need to scroll through the nonsense.

Trying to cancel Steam is going to go about as well for the wokies as you can expect

Don't be surprised if this is made to be a bigger deal than it actually is, wouldn't surprise me if foul play is in action here to drive their valuation down.

 

[Kamina]

Equalizing Pepe with actual radical imagery like Swastikas is a brain fart only the extreme left can come up with.
Disingenuous.

 

[ADiTAR]

Steam? The biggest issue is Twitch.

Hasan antisemitic pro-terror streamer who is still streaming. Violating all their T&S.
They did a panel on their con which ranked streamers from Zionists (worst) to Arab (best) or something like that.
They banned Israel for a year before they were called on it.

 

[ahtlas7]

Welcome to the world where people hold all kind of beliefs both good and bad.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Equalizing Pepe with actual radical imagery like Swastikas is a brain fart only the extreme left can come up with.
Disingenuous.

They actually do it on the purple insane forum. I think Pepe is banned there

 

[Robb]

That’s the stupidest thing I’ve seen in quite a while.

 

[Sophist]

Of course someone already posted asmonbald in the thread. why is this dude everywhere lately?

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Of course someone already posted asmonbald in the thread. why is this dude everywhere lately?

You may think of him what you want, this guy obviously strikes a nerve with many people these days. Why be mad about it? His team ins incredibly successful at exploiting all the nonsense people are obsessed with today.

 

[Paasei]

Who cares about Steam besides the store snd friends list? I have never used for any of it’s bloated features.

Of course someone already posted asmonbald in the thread. why is this dude everywhere lately?

Because he doesn’t play games anymore and only tackles topics that have a political nature. Considering he hardly ever leaves the house, he’s always ahead with a reaction.
Basically like souls-like games. It’s too much/many and it’s getting boring to even annoying.

 

[Banjo64]

Now that they’ve lost the election they are literally trying to ban all platforms that they don’t control. How sad.

 

[Tarnpanzer]

What is "siege mask"? Google doesnt help.

 

[Sophist]

What is "siege mask"? Google doesnt help.

Skull Mask | Know Your Meme

[WORK IN PROGRESS; FEEL FREE TO CONTRIBUTE] About Skull Mask is a clothing item closely associated with neo-Nazism and anti-government movements. Earning o

knowyourmeme.com

 

[Banjo64]

 

[Radical_3d]

 

[Tarnpanzer]

Skull Mask | Know Your Meme

[WORK IN PROGRESS; FEEL FREE TO CONTRIBUTE] About Skull Mask is a clothing item closely associated with neo-Nazism and anti-government movements. Earning o

knowyourmeme.com

So Ghost from MW2 is alt-right now?

 

[Sentenza]

Delusional bullshit.

Also. “Steam has been accused of” is coded language for “We are the ones accusing Steam of… and we are making sure you hear about it”.
This, on top of the fact that they are the ones that decide what “hateful content” means and you better be ready to comply.

 

[Hrk69]

Welcome to the world where people hold all kind of beliefs both good and bad.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

So Ghost from MW2 is alt-right now?

I'd like to learn about that connection as well, wtf

 

[FunkMiller]

Welcome to the world where people hold all kind of beliefs both good and bad.

FASCIST!!

 

[GHG]

This stinks like something else that happened recently which ended up resulting in an acquisition but I can't quite put my finger on it.

 

[Last Hearth]

They actually do it on the purple insane forum. I think Pepe is banned there

The ADL as sane and reasonable as the purple forum sounds about right.

 

[Warspite]

Gaf, we need to up our game, are we going to let these riffraff look more extreme than us!

 

[Three]

"master race" says it all really.

 

[gunslikewhoa]

 

[winjer]

Absolutely nothing of value would be lost by closing the Steam community pages.

Absolutely not. There is way too much great stuff in there, even if sometimes there are a few bad apples.
The Steam community is awesome and one of it's greatest strengths.
Game guides. Troubleshooting tips, that are better than official game support. Workshop tweaks and mods. Many reviews that are more professional than gaming journalists. Amazing screenshots.

I can't accept that we would discard so much great stuff, because of a few bad apples.
The solution is not to close the Steam community. The solution is to moderate the forums. Just like the mod team does it on Gaf, for example.