Valve's gaming platform Steam has begun removing potentially offensive and/or distressing attempts to pay tribute to the alleged New Zealand shooter, as users have been posting content to the profiles relating to a Facebook livestream of the shooting, according to a Kotaku report.
Steam, which has had issues with extremist or offensive groups on its platform in the past, has typically taken a fairly hands-off approach to moderation, be it of its storefront, user profiles, or online communities. Steam hosts a massive 90 million monthly users, which would make any moderation attempts a huge task, although they've made sure to stomp down here.
As evidenced, Valve has viewed these events as too severe to ignore, and the number of profiles and pages relating to the tragedy have been significantly reduced since they began cropping up. Whether these efforts are enough is another question entirely, but it is a step in the right direction for a platform thought of not doing enough to moderate its storefront and userbase.
There are also profiles with references to other attacks like the 2015 Charleston shooting and the 2011 Oslo massacre, and a handful remain that reference the New Zealand shooter too.
For more on Steam's approach to controversial content, check out our recent article on the games that have emerged in recent months and years that have attracted criticism from the community.
Has Valve acted appropriately here?