‘Shooter’ game’s maker says it “address[es] the Israel x Palestine conflict from a Palestinian perspective”
Online game distribution platform Valve has removed a game from its UK ‘Steam’ storefront following a demand from UK counter-terror authorities. The maker of the game, titled ‘The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque’, says that it “address[es] the Israel x Palestine conflict from a Palestinian perspective”. It was removed after the platform told Brasil-based developer Nidal Nijm it had “received a request from authorities in the UK to block the game and have applied such country restrictions”.
Scenes in the game are said to include a depiction of a 7 October attack on an Israeli military base.
When Nijm queried the removal of the game, which he compared to other ‘shooter’ games like Call of Duty, Steam responded:
We were contacted by the Counter Terrorism Command of the United Kingdom, specifically the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU). As with any authority for a region the [sic] oversees and governs what content can be made available, we have to comply with their requests.
In an email to 404 Media, a UK counter-terror spokesperson said:
The CTIRU works closely with a range of technology, social media and online service providers, but we do not comment on specific content or any communication we may have with specific platforms or providers.
Nijm accused the UK of political censorship and double standards, pointing out that games in which Arab people are killed by US soldiers are not banned:
The region lock of my game in the UK was clearly due to political reasons. I do not blame Valve nor Steam, the blame is on the UK government and authorities that are pissed off by a video game.
On their flawed logic, the most recent Call of Duty Black Ops 6 should be banned as well. As you play as an American soldier and go to Iraq to kill Iraqi people. What I can say is that we see clearly the double standards.
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