Brazilian government investigates Valve over political indie game

Bolsomito 2K18 has stirred up controversy in the midst of Brazil’s presidential elections.

Brazil’s Public Ministry of the Federal District and Territories started a public inquiry against Valve’s Steam platform over the publishing of a controversial 2D brawler game called Bolsomito 2K18. The game was developed by indie BS Studios and puts players in control of political candidate Jair Bolsonaro against different minorities like women’s rights demonstrators, LGBT members and members of other political factions.

In the inquiry’s official document, Brazil’s Public Ministry states that the game “clearly intends to harm [the] Presidency of the Republic and thereby embarrass the 2018 elections”, which has been branded by polarization and hard speech from Bolsonaro’s side and former President Lula Da Silva, who’s selected political heir, Fernando Haddad. These two candidates will be facing each other in the upcoming head-to-head elections two weeks from now.

Brazil’s government document quotes as part of its arguments the country’s local Internet regulating laws like the Civil Internet regulations, Personal Data Protection laws and the Personal Data Protection and Artificial Intelligence Special Unit. It goes as far as asking Valve to remove Bolsomito 2K18 from Steam’s store and determine who’s responsible for the development of the game, namely who’s behind BS Studios.

The document also states that Bolsomito 2K18 causes colective moral harm to “social movements, gays and feminists”.

As of today, Bolsomito 2K18 remains available on Steam, although there seems to be no official website or social media accounts about the game’s developers available. The game’s Steam page also lacks dev updates or blog in order to check up on their position on the matter.