Valve has removed a game from its British Steam store following a request from the UK’s counter-terrorism unit.
The FPS/TPS Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque – which describes itself as “address[ing] the Israel x Palestine conflict from a Palestinian perspective” – was removed when Steam contacted developer Nidal Nijm to inform him that it had “received a request from UK authorities to block the game and have applied such country restrictions.”
In an email to the Brazilian developer, Steam reportedly said: “We have received a request from UK authorities to block the game and have applied such restrictions by country.” When the developer allegedly asked if there was “a specific reason” for the UK ban and said “my game isn’t much different to any other shooter on Steam, like Call of Duty,” he was told:
“We were contacted by the UK Counter Terrorism Command, specifically the Counter Terrorism Internet Reference Unit (CTIRU). As with any authority in a region, [sic] monitors and governs what content can be made available, we have to comply with its requests.”
In an email to 404, a counter-terrorism spokesperson said: “The CTIRU works closely with a variety of technology, social media and online service providers, but we do not comment on specific content or any communications we may have with platforms or providers. specific.”
“The regional blocking of my game in the UK was clearly due to political reasons,” Nijm wrote in a statement to the same publication.
“I don’t blame Valve or Steam, the blame lies with the UK government and the authorities who are angry about a video game,” Nijm said. “By your flawed logic, the latest Call of Duty Black Ops 6 should also be banned. When you play as an American soldier and you go to Iraq to kill Iraqis. What I can say is that we clearly see the double standard.”
The game, which has been updated to include the October 7 attack since it was released in April 2022, calls itself “the Palestinian Max Payne on steroids” and the “most BASED game of all time.” It has already been banned in Germany and Australia for failing to clear the countries’ respective classification boards.
The game is still available to purchase online outside of the UK, including the US. In the UK, however, the Steam page simply displays an “Oops, sorry!” message that says “this item is currently not available in your region.”
