British journalists said that Valve “submits to the Kremlin” after the company, at the request of Roskomnadzor, restricted access to Flick Solitaire, a card game with LGBT* decks, on Russian Steam.

The International Business Times published an article titled “Valve bows to the Kremlin.” Valve then notified the developers why the game was unavailable, after which the studio’s founder criticized the company — in his opinion, Valve should either support the rainbow movement always and everywhere, or on the contrary openly say that it does not plan to do so. Here is some additional information from said article:

“This incident is not an isolated event for Valve. Reports from PC Gamer indicate that the company has previously removed over 260 items from Steam at the request of Roskomnadzor, suggesting a pattern of acquiescence to Russian state demands.

While Valve has historically taken a hands-off approach to content moderation—famously stating in 2018 that it would allow everything except ‘illegal’ content or ‘straight up trolling’—critics argue that defining ‘illegal’ based on local authoritarian laws effectively deputises the platform as a censor for oppressive regimes.”

To be clear, the Russian side has confirmed that this report of over 260 games being removed for violating Russian Law is true. It is important to note that countless thousands of games remain accessible to Russians on Steam. Furthermore, recently, LGBT propagandist content on Roblox was NOT regulated for the Russian market, and this cash cow game has been temporarily removed from the smartphone screens of Russian children. Russia is serious about maintaining a minimal level of public decency and not allowing games that spit in the face of their culture and traditions.

*LGBT is a banned organization in the Russian Federation