The Guardian claims that Valve's service has allegedly been criticized by players and developers for many years.
Steam has been criticized by developers and players for many years due to weak moderation. According to sources who spoke with The Guardian, the platform regularly publishes materials that violate the service's own rules — including insults, discrimination, and targeted harassment campaigns.
Content creator and Steam curator Bree "BlondePizza" Moore claims that aggression has become the norm: users conflict in reviews, discussions, and forums. According to developers, attacks are especially often directed against groups recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation.
According to Amy Lefevre from Plane Toast studio, "Valve's refusal to moderate what is happening turns Steam reviews and forums into a cultural war battlefield and makes them unsafe for marginalized people."
Designer Natalie Lawhead spent two years trying to get offensive reviews of her games removed. One of them called the project "a cringe game made by a liar", another contained anti-Semitic statements and personal attacks. According to Lawhead, despite the ban on "offensive language" and "discrimination" in the Steam rules, moderators initially rejected the complaints. As a result, one of the reviews was removed only after Lawhead contacted a Valve employee directly outside the standard moderation system.
Some studios are forced to hire moderators for their forums or strengthen the digital security measures of employees on their own. Others try to publicly ridicule hatred, turning offensive wording into a marketing element. But most developers, they say, are simply forced to endure it.
