White Supremacist, Nazi Content Spread on Steam Game Service
- Anti-Defamation League cites 1.83 million examples of content
- Steam’s code of conduct bars ‘encouraging real-world violence’
Extremist images and phrases have proliferated on Steam, which is used by 30 million people at any given moment.
Photographer:Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto /Getty ImagesIn August, a teenage boy wearing a neo-Nazi symbol stabbed five people in Eskişehir, Turkey. Shortly after, authorities found his profile on Steam, the most popular online video-game marketplace.
Valve Corp.’s Steam sells thousands of video games and hosts forums and communities for video-game discussions. But instead of conversing about games like Call of Duty, the attacker, known as Arda K., was sharing his reverence for mass shooters. His profile picture was Norwegian neo-Nazi and mass-murderer Anders Breivik. His comments praised Florida nightclub attacker Omar Mateen. Other posts demeaned Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.