Australia is pressing Valve for answers on extremist content on Steam

Australia has asked Valve to explain what it is doing about extremist activity on Steam, and the company could face fines of up to AU$825,000 a day if it does not answer the transparency notice from the country’s eSafety Commissioner. In a statement from the regulator, Steam was described as a place that is “reportedly a hub for a number of extreme-right communities,” and Valve has been told to explain how it is “identifying, preventing and responding to these harms.”

The notice was not aimed at Valve alone. Roblox, Microsoft for Minecraft, and Epic Games for Fortnite were also served transparency notices, as Australia’s eSafety office widened its attention to grooming, radicalisation, and extremist-themed material across major gaming platforms.

The regulator said it had seen media reports involving terrorist and violent extremist-themed gameplay, including Islamic State-inspired games and recreations of mass shootings on Roblox, plus far-right groups recreating fascist imagery in Minecraft. It also pointed to Fortnite content tied to the Jasenovac concentration camp and the January 6th US Capitol riot.

The move lands at a time when Steam remains massive in scale, which helps explain why scrutiny keeps circling back to Valve. We recently broke down Valve’s 2025 Steam figures in Valve’s latest Steam data, including just how much traffic the platform moves every day.

Australia’s eSafety office is also the same agency behind the country’s Age-Restricted Material Codes, which are meant to keep under-18s away from adult material. Valve has not rolled out those age checks on Steam, and the regulator is now pressing it for answers on a different but related problem. Valve has been contacted for comment.

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