ADL Report Criticizes Valve’s Steam Platform as Being “Rife With Extremism and Antisemitism” Among Less Than 1% of Users, Citing Pepe the Frog as a Factor

The Anti-Defamation League has released a report about Valve’s Steam gaming platform. According to the ADL’s report, Steam is “rife with extremism and antisemitism” because less than 1% of Steam users are creating Steam groups, posting hateful comments, and even using Pepe the Frog imagery among other things.

The ADL Center on Extremism (COE) investigated and analyzed over 458 million profiles, 152 million profile and group avatar images, and over 610 million comments on user profiles and groups. Their key findings concluded that there were 1.83 million unique examples that the ADL considers extremist or hateful content that included swastikas, Totenkopf, and sonnenrad as well as support for terrorist organizations like ISIS, Hamas, and others. This content was generated by 1.5 million unique users and 73,824 Steam groups who posted at least one extremist or hateful symbol, copypasta, or keyword.

Copypastas, the report found, was a popular method for sharing such content with the COE detecting 1.18 million instances of such examples while it was discovered that 73,824 Steam groups posted at least one instance of the three forms of content focused on by the AD. To note, there are millions of Groups on the Steam platform with the last official number being 2.5 million Steam groups back in 2012 which is, going by the outdated number of groups, makes the total number of groups detected by the CEO which accounts for 0.0029% of the total number of Steam groups.

In addition, the COE identified “thousands” of profiles glorifying mass shooters but failed to provide any specific number.

To arrive at the its results, COE focused on three types of factors which were extremist symbols, copypasta, and keywords. In order to detect hateful symbols, the organization utilized its own AI tool named HateVision which is capable of scanning and identifying hateful content in images. However, the AI’s identification process is limited and reliant on the ADL’s own definitions and determinations of what is considered “hateful” and “extremist.” For the report, HateVision evaluated around 152 million distinct images belonging to Steam Profiles or group avatars. Of the 152 million evaluated, only 0.0003% (493,954) contained allegedly extremist symbols.

The organization’s Top Extremist or Hateful Symbols on Steam list, as seen in the picture above, showed that Pepe the Frog dominated the list at 54% (544,267) with swastikas coming in a distant second at 9.1% (90,898) and the Siege Mask third accounting for 8.6% (85,569). However, when it comes to the Pepe meme, even the ADL acknowledged that “Some symbols, like the sonnenrad and Totenkopf, are explicitly extremist, while others, like Pepe, are often used by extremists, but their use alone does not signal extremist ideologies.”

As for the rest of the ADL’s findings in regards to copypastas and keyword findings, there followed a similar result in the percentage of Steam users utilizing these methods. When it came to copypastas, the swastika was the most used at 51.1% (601,901) followed by N-word images at 9.8% (115,205). As for keywords, the number 1488 was in first place at 32.9% (60,721) with Juden in second with 12.1% (22,406), and shekel 9.9% (18,334). 

The number 1488 is considered shorthand for white supremacy referring to the 14 words of the phrase “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

While the numbers provided by the ADL’s report may sound significant, when put into proper context, it can only be attributed to a mere fraction of the Steam community. In fact, Steam sees 132 million active users on a monthly basis. Based on that monthly number alone, the 1.5 million users would account for 1.36% of Steam users. However, that percentage is far lower when you take into account the ADL’s own figure of 458 million Steam profiles which brings that percentage down to 0.32% of Steam profiles or 0.98% of the 152 million profiles the ADL brings up.

Despite the fact that the ADL is talking about a fraction of a fraction for the largest gaming platform, the organization is taking this seriously. So much so that, in order to deal with and combat these examples of extremism and hate, the ADL recommends that Valve undertake a number of actions. 

First, Valve needs to adopt policies prohibiting extremism which involves enacting policies to directly deal with these issues. Secondly, Valve should adopt policies prohibiting hate which involves hateful content and behavior towards “protected characteristics” that, according to the organization, includes race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and national origin.  

Thirdly, the Half-Life 2 developer must enforce policies accurately at scale with the fourth recommending that Valve conduct audits and use red team content moderation practices to close loopholes. Finally, Valve should consult with civil society, academics, and researchers to help update their policies.

The ADL then went on to suggest recommendations for policymakers, in general, for online multiplayer games which includes the establishment of a National Gaming Safety Task Force, enhanced access to justice for victims of online abuse, and resources for research efforts.

Valve Software, the Half-Life 2 developer and video game company responsible for the creation of Steam, is no stranger to online gaming having developed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and DOTA 2. Valve launched its digital platform Steam back in 2021 and, over the years, has taken steps to deal with and curb such actions. A fact that the ADL acknowledges within its own report stating, “From late 2019 through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when users in gaming spaces reached an all-time high, the use of several swastika copypastas sharply dropped to near-zero rates.”

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