Steam Removing Users Access to Their Game Library for Speech

[Negativeman]

Be very careful as Steam has begun removing users' access to their libraries for "racism". A forum ban is one thing and totally justifiable, but banning users from their library is unacceptable. As we know and have seen many times before, the window of allowable speech only grows narrower and this issue only gets worse. Not to mention they went back to comments made back in 2017 to justify his ban. Are we going to start taking "off-site rule violations" into account as well in the future ala Twitch?

I for one am not going to invest my money into a service that thinks it allowable to deny me access to my 14+ year account and the countless games I'e bought. I'll definitely be getting my games "elsewhere" and I recommend you do too unless this ban is overturned. Say whatever you like about how insidious his comments are or how you don't like OAG, but at the end of the day, continuing to invest money into this service is just too much of a risk for me.

https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2020/06/steam-user-loses-game-library-after-valve-perma-bans-him-for-extreme-racism/110937/

[Start_Running]

Sorrow původně napsal:

Zetikla původně napsal:

I really wouldnt be surprised if OP was the guy who got banned trying to stir up artifical drama based on false claims.

You would need to be extremely dillusional to believe that calling others fascist/using the r word and annoying staff nonstop will win you any favor

1. How so? The OP made an interesting thread. It's exactly what gathered over 400+ replies in the first place. Your assumption is the one that lacks any sense.

DOes it. I mean if you look at the replies they're all essentially based off a couple false assumptions. That the account ban was over racism, and that the account ban even happened.. The first can be disproven just by reading the actual story.

2. You have no proof if the accusation is false or true.

If an accusation has no proof of veracity, no credible, verifiable proof, then it must be considered false by default.

[Sorrow]

Zetikla původně napsal:

1. Because i find it extremely...unlikely that someone would dig out some random garbage website with false accusations in normal situations. I could be wrong though

2. I do know however is that based on those screenshots that "website" has presented, the guy who got banned in question showed a very inappropriate behaviour that wasnt justified. And secondly, if people really got account suspended over literally nothing, you would see it pop in many places other than one some random garbage sorry excuse of a website.

3. I apologise if I look like spamming but I think that i can live without your lecturing, thank you

You were spamming. Learn to merge your post in a singular one not one after another.

That is your opinion and not what you originally stated. First one was claiming it.
The entire debacle here is not about being on eather side. Customers or steam support.

It's if (even true because there is no evidence of that happening in the first place) his entire account was locked on him from even accessing single player games.

The community ban was justifiable, we all agree on that.
What most ppl debate here is if the entire acc lockdown is justifiable even if that person already ,,technically own,, the games he legally payed for.

Start_Running původně napsal:

DOes it. I mean if you look at the replies they're all essentially based off a couple false assumptions. That the account ban was over racism, and that the account ban even happened.. The first can be disproven just by reading the actual story.

Yes it does.
The thread is kind of ,,hot,, news so yes, i don't see anyone else mentioning it besides him.
I never said anything about credibility of those replies... just on amount of them.

[DaBlanka]

Must be part of the China updates, adding the Social Credit Score to all steam users. Valve also requires all of your personal information now as well, so any wrongthink you post can be reported to the authorities.

[76561198001062896]

DaBlanka původně napsal:

Must be part of the China updates, adding the Social Credit Score to all steam users. Valve also requires all of your personal information now as well, so any wrongthink you post can be reported to the authorities.

Cant tell if sarcastic or serious

[Aachen]

Zetikla původně napsal:

Cant tell if sarcastic or serious

Off-topic joke or blatant misinformation, so does it matter much in the end?

[Ruse]

Weird how someone being racist, for three years, gets banned from Steam. Yet people like OP just see the words "racism" and "lifetime ban" and think they got banned for saying one thing. Hyperbole much? Sheesh.

[Pendy]

Sorrow původně napsal:

2. You have no proof if the accusation is false or true.

The claim being made is that Valve banned him, so the burden of proof lies with him to prove that he's banned.

[Tito Shivan]

RedCollectiveMind původně napsal:

Is this real? Do steam just goes and bans people from playing a game even in offline mode?

No. The fact this is the only case we've heard about in a long, long time should be telling by itself we're not talking about a common ocurrence in any shape or form. So it's unwise to make a rule out of a single case. Or as it said "Don't make a mountain out of a molehill"

Regardless of forums love for making the Himalayas out of a pebble.

TinMan1325 původně napsal:

Aachen původně napsal:

Are you certain it is in all cases?

I'm not sure what you mean by "all cases". All I know is it's totally legal to make backups of games and other computer programs

It wasn't uncommon for retail discs to include some sort of anti-copy mechanism to avoid illegal duplication.
The fact DRM protection later became purely digital made those measures unnecessary, but at a time they existed and prevented you from backing up the contents of your 'owned' discs.

[I>U]

Tito Shivan původně napsal:

RedCollectiveMind původně napsal:

Is this real? Do steam just goes and bans people from playing a game even in offline mode?

No. The fact this is the only case we've heard about in a long, long time should be telling by itself we're not talking about a common ocurrence in any shape or form. So it's unwise to make a rule out of a single case. Or as it said "Don't make a mountain out of a molehill"

Regardless of forums love for making the Himalayas out of a pebble.

Lol, I got a very strange ban when I was promoting my market bot back when Steam Market was something new. No, I gave it away for free (it was a rubble of code, to be honest), and there was NO ESTABLISHED RULE by that time that a user can't use market bot, yet alone promote it.

Valve just made an exception for me. Just like for this guy.

That's why I can conclude that Valve is full of exceptions.

[KillahInstinct]

I>U původně napsal:

Tito Shivan původně napsal:

No. The fact this is the only case we've heard about in a long, long time should be telling by itself we're not talking about a common ocurrence in any shape or form. So it's unwise to make a rule out of a single case. Or as it said "Don't make a mountain out of a molehill"

Regardless of forums love for making the Himalayas out of a pebble.

Lol, I got a very strange ban when I was promoting my market bot back when Steam Market was something new. No, I gave it away for free (it was a rubble of code, to be honest), and there was NO ESTABLISHED RULE by that time that a user can't use market bot, yet alone promote it.

Valve just made an exception for me. Just like for this guy.

That's why I can conclude that Valve is full of exceptions.

That's never been allowed and you don't have any bans resembling this.

[Kelthorian]

the.jester původně napsal:

Then I don't understand why there is this entire argument that is effectively based on heresay.

Because if it's true it puts EVERYBODIES ACCOUNT AT RISK. Terms of service can change by the damned week if the people in charge feel like it. And the conditions under which you bought your past games can RETROACTIVELY change.

Like if they get REALLY DRACONIAN valve can use past posts or behavior to terminate people's account for "wrong speech" today or tomorrow much like Youtube nowadays deletes and terminates channels with a decade's worth of content even though those old videos were perfectly fine years back but now make google look bad.

Tbh I'm depressed that there aren't MORE people speaking out against valve potentially taking away somebodies property and breaking consumer laws. At the very least they could force valve to make a clear statement whether they did or didn't terminate this person's account.


But to me no statement = true since if the claim was false they would have nothing to lose by defending themselves BUT if it is true then making a statement when they are being sued can only hurt them. Pretty much a no brainer when you stop and thing about it.

[Kelthorian]

Pengineer původně napsal:

Sorrow původně napsal:

2. You have no proof if the accusation is false or true.

The claim being made is that Valve banned him, so the burden of proof lies with him to prove that he's banned.

I mean if he is sueing valve he doesn't have to prove to the public ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. The courts ruling against valve will prove he is right.


Plus this person is supposedly russian using rusia's laws and I don't think sueing multi-billion dollar international corporations as a private citizen is such a common occurence like it is in the US so I bet he has a good case or at least a plausible one.

[I>U]

KillahInstinct původně napsal:

I>U původně napsal:

Lol, I got a very strange ban when I was promoting my market bot back when Steam Market was something new. No, I gave it away for free (it was a rubble of code, to be honest), and there was NO ESTABLISHED RULE by that time that a user can't use market bot, yet alone promote it.

Valve just made an exception for me. Just like for this guy.

That's why I can conclude that Valve is full of exceptions.

That's never been allowed and you don't have any bans resembling this.

Because it was on my previous account. I just couldn't create any new topics on it. Would you personally keep an account with such capacity after being Valve's customer for quite a time prior it?

And you are absolutely wrong on your statement about the bots

https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/5zcpec/discussion_steam_bot_clarification/

This discussion dated by 2017 and there is still no clarification what is "market bot" and what is "trade bot" in ToS. Feel free to provide your own source, but as someone who got involved in this - no, bots were always in grey zone, then Valve has allowed trading bots and prohibited market bots by defining these two. Then they just lashed at trading bots. Because it's Valve.

[The nameless Gamer]

Kelthorian původně napsal:

Like if they get REALLY DRACONIAN valve can use past posts or behavior to terminate people's account for "wrong speech" today or tomorrow much like Youtube nowadays deletes and terminates channels with a decade's worth of content even though those old videos were perfectly fine years back but now make google look bad.

Tbh I'm depressed that there aren't MORE people speaking out against valve potentially taking away somebodies property and breaking consumer laws. At the very least they could force valve to make a clear statement whether they did or didn't terminate this person's account.

Unless there is a massive surge in inappropriate behavior, there is absolutely no need for rules to become extremely draconian, therefore the probability remains extremely low. As long as the vast majority practices good manners and customs as presently, this particular case will remain pretty isolated. In 8 years of being a community member, I haven't seen a noticeable increase of strictness or any change of the EULA that puts customers at a major disadvantage. It doesn't hurt to act civil and polite.

[KillahInstinct]

I>U původně napsal:

KillahInstinct původně napsal:

That's never been allowed and you don't have any bans resembling this.

Because it was on my previous account. I just couldn't create any new topics on it. Would you personally keep an account with such capacity after being Valve's customer for quite a time prior it?

And you are absolutely wrong on your statement about the bots

https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/5zcpec/discussion_steam_bot_clarification/

This discussion dated by 2017 and there is still no clarification what is "market bot" and what is "trade bot" in ToS. Feel free to provide your own source, but as someone who got involved in this - no, bots were always in grey zone, then Valve has allowed trading bots and prohibited market bots by defining these two. Then they just lashed at trading bots. Because it's Valve.

I'm talking about the rules on the forums, they're different from the ToS - which is for your account.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=143962136