Posted on 09/02/22
| News Source: Washington Free Beacon
The online gaming platform Steam could be taken to court for its refusal to take off the market a video game that allows players to slaughter Israeli soldiers and perform acts of terrorism, an international legal group told the Washington Free Beacon.
Steam, which has some 25 million users and is owned by the Valve company, may be "in direct violation of United States anti-terrorism legislation" over its sale of Fursan Al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to the International Legal Forum (ILF), an advocacy group of more than 3,500 international lawyers and civil society activists. The video game puts you in control of a Palestinian militant who slaughters Israelis with high-powered weaponry and other munitions.
The game has drawn widespread condemnation in Israel, as well as from international anti-Semitism watchdogs, but remains on sale by Steam for $14.99. While the game was temporarily removed from Steam's library following an October 2021 Free Beacon report, it reemerged in April 2022 in an updated version that includes "even more gruesome and violent" material, according to ILF chief executive officer Arsen Ostrovsky, who said his organization notified Valve in recent correspondence that it will "consider pursuing all availing legal actions" to get the game removed.
The ILF has spent months privately attempting to contact Valve, including as recently as last month, and alert it to potential violations of U.S. anti-terrorism laws, but the company has not responded to any of these efforts. "We put them on notice that this game, with its horrific glorification of violence and incitement to terror, may place them in direct violation of United States anti-terrorism laws and that in the absence of a satisfactory response and the removal of the game, we would consider pursuing all availing legal actions."
Social media companies like Facebook removed promotional materials for the game, but Steam has yet to respond to overtures by the ILF and other pro-Israel advocacy groups. The game, which urges players to "join the resistance now," features the violent murder of Israelis, including execution-style gunshots to the face, according to recent clips posted online.