8 ms·

Steam censors LGBTQ+ content on behalf of the Russian Government

59 points by HelloUsername 11mo ago

NotGMan 11mo ago
>> content moderation policy - which allows “everything” on its store that isn’t defined as “trolling” or “illegal” - is a gift to autocrats who have weaponised the law to achieve their ends. Well it is illegal as per Russian government. >> But it won’t block blatantly Russian-backed disinformation games like Squad 22: ZOV, unless a country has passed laws to ban specific propaganda (e.g. two German states banning ‘Z’ as a hate symbol). Well yes since it's not illegal. Also: who defines what is disinformation? The author obviously! We can trust him for sure! >> Time for regulatory action?: As it stands, Steam’s content moderation policies actively strengthen censorship bodies like Roskomnadzor at the expense of its players, its developers, and democracy at large. And with the platform consistently showing that it can’t (and frankly doesn’t want to) get its house in order, it is time for digital content regulators and policy makers to finally bring the Wild West of the global games industry under regulatory control. Really ironic, since it was the woke people that forced deplatforming of everyone who was not on their woke side and demanded they be banned from work and online platforms. We all know what woke dictatorial people like the author really want: complete control over store policies under the guise "we are the good guys, and we know what must be banned and what not, so listen to us!".
- Joker_vD 11mo ago
  And it all happens in the Russian part of Steam, so... so what? Steam also IIRC censors such things for UAE, and e.g. swastikas in WW2 games for Germany (or was it Australia?) which is... fine?
- PunchyHamster 11mo ago
  Steam also blocks perfectly legal games from their platform based on vague rules; famously they blocked VNs that had no adult content whatsoever using same rules as they use for adult content. at this point of the comment I wanted to google article on the VN it was about but it turned out they did it again, this time with horror game https://www.gamesradar.com/games/horror/after-2-years-and-usd100-000-invested-acclaimed-indie-studio-is-likely-closing-due-to-steam-ban-says-it-was-tricked-and-betrayed-by-valve-a-system-that-allows-that-is-broken/ https://www.gamesradar.com/games/horror/after-2-years-and-us... > Really ironic, since it was the woke people that forced deplatforming of everyone who was not on their woke side and demanded they be banned from work and online platforms. And everyone should've just said "no, fuck you" back then, as they should now but the issue here is not even related to that problem. If country deems something illegal, the store can't sell it. Valve is not arbitrator of the law and as long as they limit enforcement of russian law to russian store, all is fine. If you want to be angry about something Valve does, be angry about them still operating in russia in the first place.
  - jasonvorhe 11mo ago
    Adult content distribution is always under pressure of credit card companies and banks.
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
theoldgreybeard 11mo ago
*in Russia
igleria 11mo ago
For other examples of censorship: try playing "sleeping dogs" in Germany.
u_sama 11mo ago
A videogame had content removed because it doesn't respect a country's laws or mores. The principle is identical everywhere, only the ideological target changes. As an example Germany banned Command & Conquer: Generals in the early 2000s for depicting Iraq warfare during a politically sensitive moment. The EU bans "hate speech" games. China bans games "smearing China's image." Russia bans "extremism". It's the same state backed censorship mechanism, it is only when it is politically beneficial or when it becomes expedient (such as other nations who we treat as the enemy) it is deemed unacceptable. The rubber law problem is the issue in all these cases: hate speech, extremism or whatever has no fixed definition. It expands when politically convenient, contracts when pressure shifts. Germany 2003: realistic warfare = too political, banned. Germany 2025: same content = acceptable. Russia's "extremism" law stretches to cover LGBTQ+ content, then anti-war speech, then opposition. The principle doesnt change. This article is not a libertarian "lets defend free speech" as much as a Western-centric activist publication. You cannot logically claim "Russia's censorship is authoritarian oppression" while defending EU (or funnier, the UK authoritarian) hate speech laws as "democratic protection". Both are state-backed content suppression justified through protective rhetoric. The mechanism is identical. If censorship is legitimate when your preferred values are protected, you've simply chosen your censor, you haven't defended free speech.
- hofrogs 11mo ago
  >You cannot logically claim "Russia's censorship is authoritarian oppression" while defending EU (or funnier, the UK authoritarian) hate speech laws as "democratic protection". No, I can. One is a repressive, anti-human law designed to push queer people out of society, while another, at least in spirit, prevents incitement of violence against those vulnerable people. They are not the same and the values are not identical. Good and bad things are different.
  - u_sama 11mo ago
    You claim EU hate speech laws protect vulnerable groups. But 96% of Jewish respondents in Europe experienced antisemitism in 2024 despite decades of anti-negationism and hate speech laws . Antisemitic content online increased thirteen-fold in German during the pandemic, the laws don't work and the censorship of the information just makes it more attractive. Yet these laws remain, which means they're not actually about protection but as control. Look at how they're actually used. France criminalized calling for BDS, claiming to protect Jews. Lithuania banned advocating for same-sex partnerships under a law claiming to "protect minors". Patriot act was about "protecting". Same protective language. Different targets. The "vulnerable people" you claim to protect become the prosecuted. Germany proves it even more, a 74-year-old woman was fined thousands of euros for criticizing Germany's immigration policies on Facebook. Germany's authorities prosecute individuals for online speech, with 17,007 hate crimes recorded in 2023, a significant increase from 8,585 in 2019, and most of them are about political disagreements not true hate. There is a whole NGO-state industry whose work is just to stop "misinformation" which just means non-state approved information. The government claims the NetzDG law protects vulnerable immigrants. Instead, it criminalized criticism of immigration policy. Once you grant the state power to define "harm," it becomes a tool against disfavored politics, not protection. And these same tools will be used by the opposite side another day, just like Trump is doing to protect the Jewish Zionists but instead it is to censor universities and immigrants.
wvbdmp 11mo ago
Eh, if you’re going to outrage-farm over Steam, them following local laws isn’t it. One might instead ask the question why they still operate in Russia in the first place, but that, too, is more of an indictment of the West’s limp-dick economic sanctions. It seems we prefer to stoke the fire and profiteer with military aid. I bet Steam doesn’t censor games in Iran, though.
schmuckonwheels 11mo ago
Germany banned Wolfenstein 3D for 30 years because of little icons on flags that reminded them all of that time the whole of Germany was on vacation from 1935-1945.
- tuhgdetzhh 11mo ago
  For all of you who played Wolfenstein 3D in your youth in Germany, here is an update: It is now completely legal since 2019.
thewinnie 11mo ago
why usually many people trying to defend Russian Government on hacker news? I'm I missing something?
- u_sama 11mo ago
  Idk, they are sadly using the same tools Western democracies have been using recently. One cannot throw a stone from a crystal palace.
- draw_down 11mo ago
  [dead]
- estimator7292 11mo ago
  Russian propaganda is a shockingly large and pervasive component of essentially all online Western media. Also just generally Americans voted for a Russian sympathiser to install a fascist government so... yeah I'm not surprised in the least
  - philipallstar 11mo ago
    Bit weird he's even applying secondary sanctions to Russian oil so India and China stop buying it, then.
    - LunaSea 11mo ago
      He also copy / pasted Russia's "peace plan" proposition.
  - jasonvorhe 11mo ago
    And anti-Russian propaganda isn't? We're in the middle of an information war.
- baiac 11mo ago
  I have read all comments (there are not that many as of now) and I have not seen a single one defending the Russian government. There are many comments comparing this censorship to the censorship that other countries are famous for having applied for a long time, and therefore it seems to me that those comments are decrying all kinds of censorship. This is only an issue for those who think censorship is good when it is applied to things they don’t like.
billyjobob 11mo ago
Why is Steam even operating in Russia? Isn’t Russia under sanction so rest of the world doesn’t do business there?
- LunaSea 11mo ago
  Only for very particular and strategic industries
- mikkupikku 11mo ago
  It's video games, not strategic resources. The more video games you pump into Russian teenagers, the less fit for war they'll become. Give them lots of mountain dew and doritos too.
- Avamander 11mo ago
  Digital sanctions are long overdue. They would be necessary just because of the amount of malicious traffic and abuse coming from Russia without any proper recourse. Why should we accept their traffic and play nice if Russia really doesn't.
gurumeditations 11mo ago
Notice Apple and Google did not comply. Steam DID comply. Shame on Valve contributing to the murder of gay men and women in Russia.
- drusha 11mo ago
  Apple and Google did comply. Apple for example is removing VPN apps from App Store at the request or the Russian government.
- constantcrying 11mo ago
  This is obviously false. Companies do not become criminal enterprises to provide services. Either they obey the laws or they leave the country. The idea of Google or Apple operating as a black market tech company in Russia is preposterous.
- jasonvorhe 11mo ago
  Not being able to play a game is contributing to murder how exactly?
1970-01-01 11mo ago
Really it just makes yet another data point of "If buying means you still are not allowed to access, then pirating is not stealing." Owning something on someone else's moods as terms is not ownership. Imagine if Steam was providing food as a service: "Access to honey is no longer allowed in your country."
mvkel 11mo ago
How could we hope to solve the alignment issue in AI when we're so terribly bad at it as a society?
gradientsrneat 11mo ago
iirc Steam also removed a Hong Kong game at the behest of the CCP. Which sucks. But as far as game companies go, there are worse.
timnetworks 11mo ago
Human rights are very expensive in russia.
- aggrrrh 11mo ago
  Have you ever been in russia?
- coffinbirth 11mo ago
  Yes, also in Guantanamo Bay, very expensive! And in Abu Ghraib, very very expensive! And these mean "drug transport boats" in the Caribbean, very very expensive to just kill them without charge or trial.
Kinrany 11mo ago
Argument in support: the venn diagram of Steam users and VPN users in Russia approaches a circle, so for the vast majority of Steam users in Russia this is a non-event and for the rest it's a nudge in the right direction. Assuming that it works based on IP location, not account. I sadly cannot RTFA.
temptemptemp111 11mo ago
[dead]
constantcrying 11mo ago
Alternative title: "Steam obeys the laws of countries it operates in"
08967865486754 11mo ago
[flagged]
tonfreed 11mo ago
Amazing that we can propagandise people for decades to accept cultural relativism and then expect people to get upset over this.

59 points by HelloUsername 11mo ago

>> content moderation policy - which allows “everything” on its store that isn’t defined as “trolling” or “illegal” - is a gift to autocrats who have weaponised the law to achieve their ends. Well it is illegal as per Russian government. >> But it won’t block blatantly Russian-backed disinformation games like Squad 22: ZOV, unless a country has passed laws to ban specific propaganda (e.g. two German states banning ‘Z’ as a hate symbol). Well yes since it's not illegal. Also: who defines what is disinformation? The author obviously! We can trust him for sure! >> Time for regulatory action?: As it stands, Steam’s content moderation policies actively strengthen censorship bodies like Roskomnadzor at the expense of its players, its developers, and democracy at large. And with the platform consistently showing that it can’t (and frankly doesn’t want to) get its house in order, it is time for digital content regulators and policy makers to finally bring the Wild West of the global games industry under regulatory control. Really ironic, since it was the woke people that forced deplatforming of everyone who was not on their woke side and demanded they be banned from work and online platforms. We all know what woke dictatorial people like the author really want: complete control over store policies under the guise "we are the good guys, and we know what must be banned and what not, so listen to us!".

Joker_vD 11mo ago
And it all happens in the Russian part of Steam, so... so what? Steam also IIRC censors such things for UAE, and e.g. swastikas in WW2 games for Germany (or was it Australia?) which is... fine?
PunchyHamster 11mo ago
Steam also blocks perfectly legal games from their platform based on vague rules; famously they blocked VNs that had no adult content whatsoever using same rules as they use for adult content. at this point of the comment I wanted to google article on the VN it was about but it turned out they did it again, this time with horror game https://www.gamesradar.com/games/horror/after-2-years-and-usd100-000-invested-acclaimed-indie-studio-is-likely-closing-due-to-steam-ban-says-it-was-tricked-and-betrayed-by-valve-a-system-that-allows-that-is-broken/ https://www.gamesradar.com/games/horror/after-2-years-and-us... > Really ironic, since it was the woke people that forced deplatforming of everyone who was not on their woke side and demanded they be banned from work and online platforms. And everyone should've just said "no, fuck you" back then, as they should now but the issue here is not even related to that problem. If country deems something illegal, the store can't sell it. Valve is not arbitrator of the law and as long as they limit enforcement of russian law to russian store, all is fine. If you want to be angry about something Valve does, be angry about them still operating in russia in the first place.
- jasonvorhe 11mo ago
  Adult content distribution is always under pressure of credit card companies and banks.

deleted 11mo ago

[deleted]

theoldgreybeard 11mo ago

*in Russia

igleria 11mo ago

For other examples of censorship: try playing "sleeping dogs" in Germany.

u_sama 11mo ago

A videogame had content removed because it doesn't respect a country's laws or mores. The principle is identical everywhere, only the ideological target changes. As an example Germany banned Command & Conquer: Generals in the early 2000s for depicting Iraq warfare during a politically sensitive moment. The EU bans "hate speech" games. China bans games "smearing China's image." Russia bans "extremism". It's the same state backed censorship mechanism, it is only when it is politically beneficial or when it becomes expedient (such as other nations who we treat as the enemy) it is deemed unacceptable. The rubber law problem is the issue in all these cases: hate speech, extremism or whatever has no fixed definition. It expands when politically convenient, contracts when pressure shifts. Germany 2003: realistic warfare = too political, banned. Germany 2025: same content = acceptable. Russia's "extremism" law stretches to cover LGBTQ+ content, then anti-war speech, then opposition. The principle doesnt change. This article is not a libertarian "lets defend free speech" as much as a Western-centric activist publication. You cannot logically claim "Russia's censorship is authoritarian oppression" while defending EU (or funnier, the UK authoritarian) hate speech laws as "democratic protection". Both are state-backed content suppression justified through protective rhetoric. The mechanism is identical. If censorship is legitimate when your preferred values are protected, you've simply chosen your censor, you haven't defended free speech.

hofrogs 11mo ago
>You cannot logically claim "Russia's censorship is authoritarian oppression" while defending EU (or funnier, the UK authoritarian) hate speech laws as "democratic protection". No, I can. One is a repressive, anti-human law designed to push queer people out of society, while another, at least in spirit, prevents incitement of violence against those vulnerable people. They are not the same and the values are not identical. Good and bad things are different.
- u_sama 11mo ago
  You claim EU hate speech laws protect vulnerable groups. But 96% of Jewish respondents in Europe experienced antisemitism in 2024 despite decades of anti-negationism and hate speech laws . Antisemitic content online increased thirteen-fold in German during the pandemic, the laws don't work and the censorship of the information just makes it more attractive. Yet these laws remain, which means they're not actually about protection but as control. Look at how they're actually used. France criminalized calling for BDS, claiming to protect Jews. Lithuania banned advocating for same-sex partnerships under a law claiming to "protect minors". Patriot act was about "protecting". Same protective language. Different targets. The "vulnerable people" you claim to protect become the prosecuted. Germany proves it even more, a 74-year-old woman was fined thousands of euros for criticizing Germany's immigration policies on Facebook. Germany's authorities prosecute individuals for online speech, with 17,007 hate crimes recorded in 2023, a significant increase from 8,585 in 2019, and most of them are about political disagreements not true hate. There is a whole NGO-state industry whose work is just to stop "misinformation" which just means non-state approved information. The government claims the NetzDG law protects vulnerable immigrants. Instead, it criminalized criticism of immigration policy. Once you grant the state power to define "harm," it becomes a tool against disfavored politics, not protection. And these same tools will be used by the opposite side another day, just like Trump is doing to protect the Jewish Zionists but instead it is to censor universities and immigrants.

wvbdmp 11mo ago

Eh, if you’re going to outrage-farm over Steam, them following local laws isn’t it. One might instead ask the question why they still operate in Russia in the first place, but that, too, is more of an indictment of the West’s limp-dick economic sanctions. It seems we prefer to stoke the fire and profiteer with military aid. I bet Steam doesn’t censor games in Iran, though.

schmuckonwheels 11mo ago

Germany banned Wolfenstein 3D for 30 years because of little icons on flags that reminded them all of that time the whole of Germany was on vacation from 1935-1945.

tuhgdetzhh 11mo ago
For all of you who played Wolfenstein 3D in your youth in Germany, here is an update: It is now completely legal since 2019.

thewinnie 11mo ago

why usually many people trying to defend Russian Government on hacker news? I'm I missing something?

u_sama 11mo ago
Idk, they are sadly using the same tools Western democracies have been using recently. One cannot throw a stone from a crystal palace.
draw_down 11mo ago
[dead]
estimator7292 11mo ago
Russian propaganda is a shockingly large and pervasive component of essentially all online Western media. Also just generally Americans voted for a Russian sympathiser to install a fascist government so... yeah I'm not surprised in the least
- philipallstar 11mo ago
  Bit weird he's even applying secondary sanctions to Russian oil so India and China stop buying it, then.
  - LunaSea 11mo ago
    He also copy / pasted Russia's "peace plan" proposition.
- jasonvorhe 11mo ago
  And anti-Russian propaganda isn't? We're in the middle of an information war.
baiac 11mo ago
I have read all comments (there are not that many as of now) and I have not seen a single one defending the Russian government. There are many comments comparing this censorship to the censorship that other countries are famous for having applied for a long time, and therefore it seems to me that those comments are decrying all kinds of censorship. This is only an issue for those who think censorship is good when it is applied to things they don’t like.

billyjobob 11mo ago

Why is Steam even operating in Russia? Isn’t Russia under sanction so rest of the world doesn’t do business there?

LunaSea 11mo ago
Only for very particular and strategic industries
mikkupikku 11mo ago
It's video games, not strategic resources. The more video games you pump into Russian teenagers, the less fit for war they'll become. Give them lots of mountain dew and doritos too.
Avamander 11mo ago
Digital sanctions are long overdue. They would be necessary just because of the amount of malicious traffic and abuse coming from Russia without any proper recourse. Why should we accept their traffic and play nice if Russia really doesn't.

gurumeditations 11mo ago

Notice Apple and Google did not comply. Steam DID comply. Shame on Valve contributing to the murder of gay men and women in Russia.

drusha 11mo ago
Apple and Google did comply. Apple for example is removing VPN apps from App Store at the request or the Russian government.
constantcrying 11mo ago
This is obviously false. Companies do not become criminal enterprises to provide services. Either they obey the laws or they leave the country. The idea of Google or Apple operating as a black market tech company in Russia is preposterous.
jasonvorhe 11mo ago
Not being able to play a game is contributing to murder how exactly?

1970-01-01 11mo ago

Really it just makes yet another data point of "If buying means you still are not allowed to access, then pirating is not stealing." Owning something on someone else's moods as terms is not ownership. Imagine if Steam was providing food as a service: "Access to honey is no longer allowed in your country."

mvkel 11mo ago

How could we hope to solve the alignment issue in AI when we're so terribly bad at it as a society?

gradientsrneat 11mo ago

iirc Steam also removed a Hong Kong game at the behest of the CCP. Which sucks. But as far as game companies go, there are worse.

timnetworks 11mo ago

Human rights are very expensive in russia.

aggrrrh 11mo ago
Have you ever been in russia?
coffinbirth 11mo ago
Yes, also in Guantanamo Bay, very expensive! And in Abu Ghraib, very very expensive! And these mean "drug transport boats" in the Caribbean, very very expensive to just kill them without charge or trial.

Kinrany 11mo ago

Argument in support: the venn diagram of Steam users and VPN users in Russia approaches a circle, so for the vast majority of Steam users in Russia this is a non-event and for the rest it's a nudge in the right direction. Assuming that it works based on IP location, not account. I sadly cannot RTFA.

temptemptemp111 11mo ago

[dead]

constantcrying 11mo ago

Alternative title: "Steam obeys the laws of countries it operates in"

08967865486754 11mo ago

[flagged]

tonfreed 11mo ago

Amazing that we can propagandise people for decades to accept cultural relativism and then expect people to get upset over this.