Following his trial for defamation of the families of the children and school staff killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is using Valve Corp.’s Steam, the world’s largest digital distribution platform for PC games, to sell an Infowars-themed video game. Jones claims to have earned hundreds of thousands in revenue from the video game, yet he has refused to pay the Sandy Hook families. Alex Jones: NWO Wars also mirrors and cartoonishly repackages the conspiracy theorist’s regularly violent, hateful rhetoric despite the platform’s policies against hate speech.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    2
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    To the best of my knowledge Valve allows basically everything that’s not outright illegal. They aren’t nearly as much of a “good” corporation as they’re often framed as. They’ll happily provide a platform for and take their 30% from anyone, including racists, misogynists, homophobes, etc.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      310 months ago

      Or maybe they don’t see it’s their place to gatekeep the store based on their own morals. If you start - where do you draw the line? Some examples like such games may be obvious, but there will be a lot more that are less so.

      If people disagree with the message - nobody forces them to buy it after all and you can block any game from even showing up for you in the store, in my opinion it’s plenty enough from the valve’s part. I’d rather be the judge myself as to what I want and what I don’t want to see and play, rather than any corporation.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        2
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        They used to disallow adult games, they don’t allow NFT or crypto.

        They have drawn plenty of lines, and moved them when it benefits them. They are just like any other corporation, they just hide it really well and the fans forgive or hide the rest for them.

        • Hominine
          link
          fedilink
          English
          0
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          Didn’t they also rule against AI artwork? Seems that where their pocket book and legal worries are concerned, Valve treads lightly. Moral concerns and societal obligations? Not so much.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            0
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            They also told a dev to stop developing a game since if they gave the go ahead Nintendo could potentially go after them.

            They care about money more than anything else, just like any other corporation.

              • Ashen44
                link
                fedilink
                010 months ago

                No, someone was developing a fan demake of a valve game for the Nintendo 64, and since the tools to develop a game for the Nintendo 64 aren’t legally available and it’s being used for valve’s IP then nintendo would be able to go after valve.

                • NoIWontPickaName
                  link
                  fedilink
                  -110 months ago

                  All right, I’m not great on coding but surely you can make your own tool that can compile into a game that can get a Nintendo 64 to work without using Nintendo’s tools which I am assuming is the problem

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        2
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        The problem with that is that providing a platform and a revenue stream is providing support. Whatever the intent is, that is the result. The issue isn’t what I see on the Steam store, it’s providing a platform at all.

        And yes, obviously there’s the question of where to draw the line. But not drawing one at all means providing support for the Alex Joneses of the world. There’s no way around that. And I don’t think that that’s a worthwhile trade.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        010 months ago

        I find the “where do you stop” argument to be riddled with holes. Laws are essentially written to explicitly outline boundries and moderation policies are basically just internal laws. Like Canadian law has very specific laws regarding what constitutes hate speech, here is what that looks like.

        First you outline protected grounds. In Canada this is race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics, disability and conviction for an offence for which a pardon has been granted. (note: pardons are only available via democratic votes or through appeals in Canada)

        There’s a stage where you determine what context stuff is in. Like whether it is being performed publicly or privately but marketing a video game is definitely publicly so in tgis context we can skip to it’s last part where you explicitly define hate speech. Hate speech is rhetoric that :

        • Describes group members as animals, subhuman or genetically inferior

        • Suggests group members are behind a conspiracy to gain control by plotting to destroy western civilization

        • Denying, minimizing or celebrating past persecution or tragedies that happened to group members

        • Labelling group members as child abusers, pedophiles or criminals who prey on children Blaming group members for problems like crime and disease

        • Calling group members liars, cheats, criminals or any other term meant to provoke a strong reaction including usage of known slurs in the context of intended harm to group members.

        These rules likely wouldn’t touch some hateful rhetoric that sneaks through under the wire disguised in very abstracted metaphor but it creates a pretty distinct pass fail bar that would catch explicit hate speech on their platform.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      110 months ago

      Unless it pisses off the Chinese government, like the game Devotion that was released from a Taiwanese developer. But I don’t think Steam has a high ground so much as it has good PR while not being extremely greedy. In contrast, GOG also removed it, which sort of discredited any high ground they had.

    • Mario_Dies.wav
      link
      fedilink
      -210 months ago

      This is too bad, but yes. They are like any other large corporation, I suppose – motivated primarily by greed.