We recently reported on a Russian Steam user who was unceremoniously banned from accessing his account, both in the community forums and from his game library through the Steam client. He recently decided to take his issue up with the consumer rights agency in Russia, as well as look into suing Valve for breaching Russian law.
Some pro-censorship Leftists claimed that Valve was in the right, and that lcompote deserved to be banned from the service. Others stated that lcompote made up the whole thing and it was fake.
Well, to address all the naysayers, pro-corporate censorship apologists, and anti-consumer rights advocates, lcompote put together a near 20-minute video showcasing screenshots, links, and conversations he had with Steam’s support staff that led to him being banned from accessing his games. You can check out the YouTube video below.
If the YouTube video is taken down for any reason, there’s a backup video that you can view over on lbry.tv.
He immediately debunks that he had a hand in scrubbing his own account, given that he notes that it takes 30 days to delete an account, and after his last interaction with the Steam support on June 5th, they perma-banned him for “extreme racist spam” on June 6th. So he had already lost access to his games. Obviously he couldn’t have deleted his own account if it takes 30 days to scrub an account. You can see a screenshot of the process below.
He also goes through his posts on the Steam forums that received warnings or bans, as well as his communications with Steam’s support staff, who eventually threatened him with a ban on his access to games if he continued linking them to Russia law materials related to consumer rights.
He also linked to the Russian Criminal Code of Conduct under article 158, sub-section (1), which points out that theft is a federal crime and carries years in prison, and since lcompote did not comply with having access to his games restricted, then it means that the items he paid for were effectively stolen from him.
He points out in the video that he’s already contacted the Russian consumer rights agency, and will be taking the necessary steps to see how he can launch a lawsuit against Valve for their conduct, especially in regards to denying him support service and restricting him from accessing games he paid for.
Given that Valve has lost various consumer rights-related cases in the past, especially in Australia, where they were even lost a $2.3 million appeal, as reported by Variety, there’s a good chance that lcompote may end up on the winning side of of his endeavors if Russia’s consumer rights agency follows through with his case.
