Summary
Steamhas taken down content from its platform in Russia following complaints from the government. In doing so, it appears that theSteamgame distribution platform will be allowed to continue doing business with customers from the country.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had an impact in tremendous ways, leading to an outright ban on numerous services and businesses that had previously been operating or otherwise made available in Russia. Everything from McDonald’s toDiscord have been banned in Russia, but it looks like Steam is safe for the moment.
According to a report from Russian state-controlled platformInterfax, Steam complied with orders to remove a number of webpages and “banned materials” from the platform. What exactly was removed hasn’t been expressly stated by either Russian officials or Steam. In all, it’s said that eleven webpages and over 260 pieces of content were removed. While Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media stated that these contents have been removed, it’s likely that the content is still available to users in other areas.Removing content from Steamthat users in other areas have legally accessed and enjoy wouldn’t make much sense from a business perspective.
Valve’s Content Removal Isn’t a Big Surprise
While this move may be unfortunate for some Russian users, it’s not entirely uncommon for Steam to take actions like this. For example, Valve previously launched Steam China, a specialized version of its platform for users in China. The games and services available via Steam China aren’t exactly the same as the standard platform, aswhat’s available on Steam Chinahas to be compliant with Chinese regulations. It’s unlikely that Steam will do the same for Russia. While Russia has a large gaming population, China’s gaming population outnumbers it significantly, as one might expect given the population disparity between the two countries.
Unfortunately, this is far from the only service that’s been impacted. In addition to Steam and the aforementioned Discord, numerous social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are banned in Russia. Streaming services likeCrunchyroll also suspended service in Russia. YouTube has also been hit with outages in Russia in recent times, with some rumors alleging that access to the service in the country may be banned outright in the near future. As the war continues, it remains to be seen what the future holds for Russia’s citizens and their access to online services that users in other areas take for granted.
Steam
Steam is a digital video game storefront and program developed by Valve that allows gamers to purchase, play, and mod their titles all through one convenient program.
