On June 22, an independent video game developer (read: one person, perhaps in a dimly lit basement) published a PC game called Goyslop on the popular platform Steam. They described Goyslop as a “Nazi Souls-like game”—implying it resembled the seminal game Dark Souls, which Goyslop almost certainly did not—“filled with the biggest conspiracy theories about Jews.” 

Full disclosure: we have not played the game. Instead, we turned to reviews for a plot summary. Czech reviewer Párek8, who purchased the game for a few dollars and played it for less than an hour, called it “a completely unhinged internet fever dream where u basically help hitler fight jesus, communists and god knows what else in a wild shooter battle. story makes zero sense, the bosses look like actual sleep paralysis demons, and the dark humor is just straight up insane.”

A Jewish Redditor discovered the game a few days before its release and sounded the alarm to the main Jewish subreddit forum, leading to numerous complaints filed with Steam, none of which led anywhere. For those unfamiliar with the gaming giant, Steam enjoys approximately 147 million active monthly users, owning a full three-quarters of PC gaming market share. Almost anyone can upload and sell a game on Steam, whether it’s a AAA title or cheap “shovelware” garbage like Goyslop. While Steam is incredibly popular, Goyslop was not; data shows a handful of people actually played it. 

Yet despite the small numbers, Goyslop is a perfect crystallization of our society’s trouble with regulating harmful digital content. 

The game’s lack of popularity makes it all the more surprising that Steam actually removed Goyslop just four days after its release. A follow-up post on Reddit revealed one user escalated the complaint to Congresswoman Kim Schrier of Washington state, who is Jewish, and in whose district Steam’s parent company, Valve, operates. Within 24 hours of notifying the congresswoman, the user claims, Goyslop was gone. 

Indeed, on June 27, the creator of Goyslop posted an update to his small but enthusiastic community: “Yesterday I was working on a new update, and when I checked the game’s store page, it had been taken down. Steam only sent me a single line saying it was removed. I appreciate........

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