Valve has recently banned a controversial mod from their digital platform after they received a formal request from the South Korean Government.
The mod called Gwangju Running Man belonged to the game Mount & Blade: Warband, which is all about assembling a band of warriors and leading them into battle.
The mod was taken down worldwide on June 12, 2025, because it praised Chun Doo-hwan, who was a former South Korean dictator, and twisted the history of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising.
The Gwangju Uprising was a major event where people fought for democracy, but the military, led by Chun, violently stopped them, killing many.
The mod showed the protesters as bad guys and the military as heroes, which upset many in South Korea. It even had a picture of Chun on its cover.
South Korea’s game rating board initially blocked the mod in the country, citing laws against altering history. Then they asked Valve to remove it from everywhere.
Valve agreed, but later said the mod’s creator took it down, not them. Valve also said they respect the importance of the Gwangju Uprising to Koreans.
Some people are happy the mod is gone because it lied about history. Others think it’s wrong for a government to control what’s on Steam, worrying it could lead to more censorship in the future.
