He frequently posted racist and violent content to the site, the Daily Beast reported. One such shooter, William Edward Atchison, who killed two people during a shooting spree at a New Mexico high school in December, was active on Steam. A common theme in those shootings was that the men spent a lot of time online, posting racist and misogynistic content. A report last month from the Southern Poverty Law Center identified 13 mass shootings committed since 2014 by disaffected young men aligned with the alt-right movement.
Several recent high-profile mass shooters were active in the dark underbelly of the internet. The context: The next school shooter could be posting online right now Representatives from Valve did not respond to requests for comment. Gabe Newell, Valve’s CEO, has an estimated net worth of $5.5 billion, according to Forbes. Valve, the company that runs Steam, is worth billions of dollars.
The company said last year that it has 67 million monthly active players and a total user base of 125 million members. On Steam, users might not be inspired by violent games, but rather taking advantage of the lightly moderated forum provided by the platform. On Thursday, the White House announced that President Donald Trump will meet with video game industry leaders next week to talk about school shootings.īlaming video games has been a common refrain after school shootings, but experts largely contest any direct connection between playing violent video games and gamers engaging in real-life violence. And Steam has a social networking community that allows users to form groups such as those named for school shootings. Players can also use the site to communicate with and play alongside other gamers.
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Steam is essentially an online app that allows players to buy and download games.
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Steam is by far the most popular venue for what’s known as PC gaming, the act of playing games online with a personal computer as opposed to a console like a PlayStation. Most of the groups in question are relatively small and don’t have a large volume of user comments. This group appropriates a widely used meme format for its profile image. There are even discussions about whom school shooters should target during future rampages. Some of the groups link to external sites, such as YouTube, or personal sites where members have posted videos and imagery of school mass shooters such as Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who killed 13 students and themselves in a shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. The misogyny that drove Rodger’s violence is frequently celebrated. Many use photos of notorious killers such as Elliot Rodger, who murdered six people near University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014, in retribution for being rejected by women. This group, perhaps ironically, advertises its creator’s intention to carry out school shootings on behalf of others. Groups like this one contain frequent references to racism and homophobia: That’s despite clear rules barring “inappropriate or offensive content” on the platform, Steam.Īs of Wednesday morning, we counted 173 Steam groups that blatantly venerate past school shooters.įor example, this group paints a sympathetic picture of school shooters as victims of bullying:
One of the world’s largest online gaming platforms has a thriving community dedicated to glorifying and discussing school shootings. In this week’s roundup: A prominent gaming community is filled with groups glorifying school shooters and neo-Nazis. The Hate Report: Gaming app has 173 groups that glorify school shooters - Reveal Close
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