In a classic display of self-righteous moral grandstanding, U.S. Senator Mark Warner is shaking his fist at Valve, the company behind Steam, threatening them with federal action.
What’s his problem? Alleged “rampant extremism” supposedly flourishing on Valve’s PC platform. And, of course, his main source for this sensational claim is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) a group infamous for slapping the “hate speech” label on anything.
They recently churned out yet another hit piece, once again targeting Valve’s Steam service, accusing it of harboring and “normalizing” extremism.
The ADL, which originally came into existence to defend convicted child murderer Leo Frank, has somehow managed to rebrand itself as the ultimate gatekeeper of what’s deemed acceptable online behavior. But let’s dig into the history they don’t like to advertise.
Leo Frank was the superintendent of a pencil factory in Atlanta, Georgia, who in 1913 was found guilty of brutally raping and murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan, one of his factory workers. The young girl was strangled after being assaulted by Frank.
During the trial, Frank’s defense tried to shift the blame onto a Black man named Jim Conley, who was a janitor at the factory. Despite his attempts to evade justice, a jury convicted Frank based on compelling evidence and witness testimonies. But here’s where the plot thickens: powerful Jewish advocacy groups, outraged by the conviction of one of their own, mounted an extensive campaign to exonerate Frank.
This resulted in his death sentence being commuted to life in prison, sparking widespread outrage in the local community of Marietta, Georgia, a county known for its KKK ties. The anger culminated in a mob of citizens taking matters into their own hands by lynching Frank in 1915.
Think about that for a moment: in a county filled with Ku Klux Klan members, Leo Frank still tried to blame the horrific rape and murder of a young girl on a Black janitor, Jim Conley. But despite that, the people of Marietta saw through his lies. They were so convinced of Frank’s guilt that they refused to let him escape justice, taking matters into their own hands to ensure he paid for his crime, despite pressure from powerful supporters trying to shield him.
In response to Frank’s execution, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was established with the mission of combating anti-Semitism. It’s also worth noting that Leo Frank had been the president of the Atlanta chapter of B’nai B’rith, the organization from which the ADL emerged. His conviction and subsequent lynching became a rallying point for the formation of the ADL, aiming to defend Jewish individuals against persecution, citing injustice and discrimination.
Fast forward to today, the ADL has transformed into an organization that wields significant influence over what’s considered “hate speech” online. They’ve made it their mission to sanitize the internet according to their standards, all under the guise of fighting extremism. Critics argue that the ADL uses its power to strong-arm corporations like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Activision into adopting surveillance technology within their platforms to police so-called “problematic” gamers, effectively stifling free speech.
This has only fueled the fire for those labeled as “conspiracy theorists,” who point to organizations like the ADL as evidence of disproportionate influence, particularly in media and entertainment. While any suggestion of Jewish control over global institutions is quickly dismissed as racist anti-Semitism, it’s hard to ignore the ADL’s role in pushing corporations to censor content and silence voices they deem offensive, all while positioning themselves as the moral authority on what should be allowed in the digital public square.
Organizations like the ADL are determined to crush any discussion or conspiracy theories about the influence and control that Jewish groups allegedly wield over consumers. They do this by leveraging the threat of reputational damage through their reports, effectively strong-arming companies into compliance.
One of their most absurd claims is that memes like Pepe the Frog are somehow symbols of white supremacy, showcasing just how far they’re willing to stretch their narrative to police online culture.
According to the ADL’s report, 54.6% of the so-called hateful content they uncovered on Steam out of 827,758 user profiles featured none other than Pepe the Frog. Yes, the vast majority of this alleged hate speech comes from a simple frog meme.
This was based on a scan of over 273 million accounts with custom profile avatars, along with just 57,327 Steam groups out of a total of 10.86 million containing similar content.
So, when it comes to Pepe, it actually represents a minuscule 0.1994% of scanned Steam users.
The next most “problematic” symbol according to the ADL was the Swastika, which, depending on its orientation, is a symbol of peace in many cultures. Yet, Swastikas made up just 9% of the ADL’s findings, translating to a mere 0.093% of the total 273 million Steam accounts.
Even if we were to be generous and use Steam’s peak daily active users as a baseline, Pepe the Frog would only account for 1.464% of active users, while Swastikas would be a laughable 0.242%. But, of course, we’re supposed to believe this is a dire issue that needs immediate correction.
These numbers are even more absurd than GLAAD’s recent study, where they criticized the gaming industry for supposedly lacking LGBT representation. Despite modern games being flooded with queer themes and androgynous characters, GLAAD insists that video games are still “underrepresented” when it comes to LGBT inclusion, by including games dating all the way back to the days of Pong to fuel such statistics.
Now, Mark Warner is jumping on the ADL’s questionable report to push Valve into ramping up censorship on its platform. He’s demanding answers about what Valve intends to do to “combat extremism,” even hinting at federal intervention if they don’t fall in line.
Because, clearly, nothing screams “freedom” quite like the government policing your video games over the fact that a tiny fraction of users have Pepe avatars, and an even tinier fraction of those users might be extremists or at the very least larpers.
The ADL’s playbook here is nothing new. They’ve been leading the charge in turning the internet into a sanitized echo chamber for woke ideologues, weaponizing terms like “hate speech” to silence anyone who dares to step out of line. They’ve already succeeded in strong-arming major social media platforms into compliance, and now it looks like they’re setting their sights on gamers yet again.
Apparently, it’s not enough that gamers already put up with benign woke propaganda and overpriced microtransactions; now they’ve got to watch their backs for the ADL, lurking in their game lobbies, ready to slap the “extremist” label on anyone using a meme avatar or simply trying to have a good time.
Let’s cut through the nonsense: the ADL’s agenda isn’t really about “fighting extremism” or “protecting marginalized communities.” It’s about control plain and simple. They want to dictate what people can say, think, and even laugh at. If they had their way, Steam would be reduced to yet another sterile echo chamber where only the most politically correct viewpoints are tolerated.
After facing criticism from the ADL over alleged anti-Semitism, Activision caved to the pressure and rolled out an AI-powered tool called ToxMod developed by tech firm Modulate. This tool actively monitors, scans, and detects so-called offensive or racist content in both text and voice chats during gameplay, all in an effort to weed out a tiny fraction of “problematic” gamers.
Modulate, of course, is a company that has partnered with the ADL with the explicit mission of combating “toxicity” and “hate” online, effectively turning gaming spaces into surveillance zones under the guise of promoting inclusivity while anti-White sentiment runs rampant all over the internet perpetrated by media institutions.
The ADL’s playbook is as predictable as it is Orwellian. Their version of making the online world “safer” means monitoring and analyzing every word gamers type or say, all in the name of rooting out so-called “wrongthink.”
Sure, only a tiny fraction of players might actually engage in genuinely racist behavior, but that’s all the justification they need to push for mass surveillance of the entire community. And they’ve found a willing partner in Activision, who’s already embracing these heavy-handed tactics under the guise of combating toxicity.
The ADL-backed AI moderation in Call of Duty has purged a significant amount of so-called hateful rhetoric, in a franchise that many gamers have already written off as irrelevant, especially with its forced embrace of a more “inclusive” cultural shift.
At its core, the ADL operates like a protection racket, using PR hit pieces that accuse corporations of anti-Semitism, extremism, and racism to strong-arm them into compliance all in the name of censoring the masses and tightening their grip on online spaces. And if the ADL gets its way, the implications could be even worse for gamers on platforms like Steam.
Since you don’t actually own the games you purchase there due to its DRM model, a ban could mean losing access to your entire library, simply because you ran afoul of their ever-expanding definitions of “hate speech.”
Following the ADL’s latest report, U.S. Senator Mark Warner is pressuring Valve to take action under the threat of federal intervention. In a formal letter addressed to Gabe Newell, Warner demanded a detailed explanation of how Valve combats extremist content on its platform.
He specifically wants to know how many moderators are involved, what strategies are currently in place, and what improvements are planned for the future. Valve has been given a deadline of December 13 to respond to these demands.
So, while Mark Warner and the ADL are busy wringing their hands over supposed extremism on Steam, maybe they should take a long, hard look in the mirror. This is the same ADL that’s more focused on silencing gamers over a handful of misdeeds, all while pushing the narrative that a few offensive memes are a crisis demanding federal intervention.
Let’s not forget, the First Amendment significantly limits the government’s ability to interfere here, meaning they can’t punish companies for hosting even the most controversial yet legal content.
This is nothing more than a smoke screen to expand their influence, using the overblown threat of “hate speech” to crush free expression under the guise of making the internet a “safer” place.
Meanwhile, it conveniently reinforces the perception that a certain group has unparalleled political power and control. In reality, this latest crusade against Valve is just another attempt by the ADL to impose their ideological agenda on everyone else. And if you dare to question it, well, that just makes you the next “extremist” on their hit list
