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

S

Sophist

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

www.adl.org

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 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.
 
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
 
Unknown Soldier said:
Trying to cancel Steam is going to go about as well for the wokies as you can expect
Click to expand...
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.
 
Gonzito said:
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
Click to expand...
Lately? The place has been a cesspool for years.
 
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 🙄.
 
Pop said:
So less than 1% of the users

Nothing burger
Click to expand...

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).
 
Last edited:
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.
 
look at my nazi imagery according to the ADL!

3x.webp

3x.webp

3x.webp
 
Last edited:
JimboJones said:
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 🙄.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
 
Last edited:
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.
 
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.
 
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!
 
Last edited:
FunkMiller said:
Absolutely nothing of value would be lost by closing the Steam community pages.
Click to expand...

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.

Unknown Soldier said:
Trying to cancel Steam is going to go about as well for the wokies as you can expect
Click to expand...

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.
 
Equalizing Pepe with actual radical imagery like Swastikas is a brain fart only the extreme left can come up with.
Disingenuous.
 
Last edited:
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.
 
Sophist said:
Of course someone already posted asmonbald in the thread. why is this dude everywhere lately?
Click to expand...
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.
 
Who cares about Steam besides the store snd friends list? I have never used for any of it's bloated features.
Sophist said:
Of course someone already posted asmonbald in the thread. why is this dude everywhere lately?
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
 
FunkMiller said:
Absolutely nothing of value would be lost by closing the Steam community pages.
Click to expand...

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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Locked
[Article] Video Games Have Become Rife With DEI and Some Fans Aren’t Buying It
34
2K
thefool replied
Nvidia: Nintendo Switch 2 Leveled Up With NVIDIA AI-Powered DLSS and 4K Gaming
News  3 4 5 6 7
337
17K
RodriGames40 replied
  • Locked
inZOI Early Access sales top one million on PC Steam
1
264
CyberCali replied
Avowed Releases as a Global Top Seller on Steam
2
72
4K
Senua replied
Sony is experimenting with AI-powered PlayStation characters
News  2
59
4K
moogman replied
Top Bottom