Gabe Newell’s company has responded to a complaint from the country’s anti-terrorism police, and the developer has responded that there is a double standard.
This police force has an Internet division that monitors extreme content on the Internet, and it was at their request that Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, released in 2022, was removed from the UK. In the game, you have to take out Israeli targets by controlling a member of Hamas. However, the game received a new update in October this year (Operation Al-Aqsa Flood Update), which includes several elements of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. The trailer includes text such as “I want an explosive belt to blow myself up over the Zionists!”, the execution of an Israeli hostage, and Hamas fighting the Israeli army.
Nidal Nijm, the developer of the game, made a contradictory statement (you cannot execute an Israeli hostage and the game punishes you for it). Valve contacted the developer on October 22nd and the game was removed from the UK market. The reason given by Valve: “We have been contacted by the UK Counter Terrorism Command, specifically the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU). As with any authority in a region that oversees and regulates what content can be made available, we have to comply with their requests”. The game is still available elsewhere, following Valve’s example: unless Valve is contacted by the authorities in a country, the title remains on Steam, but this approach has been condemned by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), among others.
The CTIRU has been in existence since 2010 and people can call attention to the disturbing content, but their spokesperson declined to comment. The game has since been banned in Australia and Germany. Nijm has no money for age ratings: “The region-locking of my game in the UK was clearly for political reasons (they accuse my game of being ‘terrorist’ propaganda). I do not blame Valve or Steam, the blame lies with the UK government and authorities who are pissed off about a video game. Using their flawed logic, the latest Call of Duty Black Ops 6 should also be banned. Because you play as an American soldier and you go to Iraq to kill Iraqi people. What I can say is that we clearly see the double standard,” Nijm told 404.
Fursan al-Aqsa is not a Call of Duty rival (it is more shovelware level in quality). Nijm deliberately put the Israeli hostage in the game to annoy the Zionists, and then compared it to the No Russian mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Obviously he takes the Palestinian side in what is happening in Israel.
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