Bosses of Steam, Discord, Twitch and Reddit have to explain themselves for radicalizing users

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The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week has sparked major political upheaval in the United States.

Recently, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform asked the leaders of several online companies to appear before a hearing about how the internet can contribute to radicalization.

  1. The CEOs of Steam, Discord, Twitch, and Reddit, namely Gabe Newell, Humam Sakhnini, Dan Clancy, and Steve Huffman, are to appear at the hearing.
  2. The commission expects the CEOs to explain what steps they will take to curb the radicalization of their users and ensure that these platforms are not used for “nefarious purposes” in the future.
  3. The hearing will take place on October 8th of this year.

Message from the American Congress.

Discord and Reddit comment

Some of these services have already commented on this matter.

  • A Discord representative stated that the company cooperates with authorities on such matters and is willing to appear before the committee to discuss its actions.
  • Meanwhile, a Reddit representative announced that the service has strong moderation rules for content promoting hate and violence, and that its investigators have so far found no evidence that Charlie Kirk’s killer was active on Reddit.

Honestly, the reaction from gamers to this news hasn’t been good. I’ve been reading a lot on Reddit, and a big concern is that the US government is using the fight against extremism as a way to restrict what people can say online. It’s really worrying. Of course, a lot of us also recognize there’s a problem with misinformation and hate spreading around on social media, whether it’s from actual people trying to stir things up – sometimes even getting paid to do it – or just bots spreading nonsense.

Many people are right to point out that platforms have the ability to prevent problematic behavior, but they choose not to because it would hurt their profits. Reddit is a good example of this – it lets users hide their post history. While this feature might seem harmless, it mostly helps trolls and fake accounts, making it difficult for real users to identify them.

Notably, the leaders of Facebook and X – platforms where extreme and hateful content frequently surfaces – weren’t asked to testify before the commission. This raises questions about whether their companies’ ties to the Republican party influenced that decision.

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2025-09-18 18:32