Valve's moderation efforts are under scrutiny, as the ADL claims offensive content often bypasses detection on Steam.

A new report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called attention to the prevalence of extremist and hateful content on Steam, accusing the platform of enabling the spread of such material.

According to the ADL's findings, over 1.8 million instances of hate-related content, including Nazi imagery and support for terrorist organizations like ISIS and Hamas, were discovered during an "unprecedented" analysis of Steam's vast user base.

Benzinga has reached out to Valve Corporation, the platform's parent company, for comment, but the company had not responded at time of publication.

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The report, published on the ADL's website, offers a sweeping look at the types of content found across the platform.

Over the course of its investigation, the ADL examined 458 million user profiles, 152 million group avatars and more than 610 million comments from users. Among the most concerning discoveries were antisemitic symbols, white supremacist propaganda and support for extremist groups, including thousands of mentions of ISIS and Hamas.

In addition to the hateful imagery, the ADL uncovered troubling use of offensive keywords such as "1488," "shekel" and "white power," with nearly 185,000 specific terms identified in extremist contexts. In total, 1.5 million unique users and over 73,000 groups were found to have shared such content.

Despite these alarming findings, the ADL points out a critical gap in Steam's content moderation policies. While Valve explicitly prohibits hate speech in its developer and community guidelines -- stating that it forbids "speech that promotes hatred, violence or discrimination" -- the ADL argues that enforcement of these rules remains inconsistent.

Valve's Moderation Tools Under Scrutiny

The ADL's report goes on to question the effectiveness of Valve's moderation efforts. While the company employs filters and automated tools to screen user-profiles and comments, these measures are not universally applied across all areas of the platform.

Notably, users can disable filters, making it easier for harmful content to slip through the cracks. Furthermore, the ADL asserts that Valve's keyword detection system can easily be evaded, with users modifying words or using ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) art to circumvent moderation systems.

"While Steam appears to be technically capable of moderating extremist and hateful content on its platform, the spread of extremist content on the platform is due in part to Valve's highly permissive approach to content policy," the ADL stated.

It also pointed out that, in rare instances, Valve has taken down extremist content, but this has often occurred only after external pressure or media attention, rather than as part of a consistent, proactive strategy.

Calls For Change In Valve's Platform

The organization has called for a significant overhaul of the company's content governance, urging Valve to implement policies that explicitly prohibit hate and extremism, conduct thorough audits of their moderation practices, and collaborate with researchers and civil society to improve their approach.

"Major gaming companies are selling their wares on a platform that is not addressing users' support of extremists and allowing the proliferation of hate," Daniel Kelley, the ADL's director of strategy and operations, remarked in an interview with Bloomberg.

"This increases the likelihood that someone will travel all the way down the rabbit hole," Kelley added.

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