This article is a little different from my normal tutorials and guides. If you don’t want to read, I understand, but this is an important subject and a worrying development for the internet. Especially those who create NSFW content.
You may have recently heard that Steam were forced to remove a bunch of Adult games, and the indie games site Itch.io was forced to delist all Adult games. Here I’m going to go through what happened, why it’s a problem, and give a link to where you can help, should you be so inclined.
What Happened to Steam?
On July 16th Steam suddenly revised it’s game publishing rules. The following was added to their ‘What you shouldn’t publish on Steam‘ rules:
Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers. In particular, certain kinds of adult only content.
A rather vague and worrying rule that would give payment processors the right to pick and choose anything to be removed from Steam’s entire game catalogue.
Steam also delisted a swathe of games that it seems violated this newly implemented rule.
What Happened to Itch.io?
On July 24th Itch posted an article explaining they were forced to delist all games marked as Adult until they can be checked to see if they are compatible with the demands of their Payment Processors.
The Itch.io debacle has been quite damaging as I’ve seen reports on Twitter/X that removed games have been completely removed from customers accounts, essentially depriving them of content they have legally purchased.
There were also reports (via X/Twitter) that creators whose games were delisted are not able to receive payouts due to having a delisted game. This is especially problematic given the timing being near the end of the month and may be some small creators only source of funds for bills.
I’ve also seen some reports on Bluesky that creators who used the Adult tag as a way to show their games are not suitable for children but do not contain nudity or sexual content, have also been caught in the crossfire.
Why is this a bad thing?
This requires a little background knowledge, so bear with me. Source: I have a background in development and have worked with payment gateways and processors in the past.
Payment Processors are essential to an online business, especially the big two: Mastercard and Visa. These two payment processors are essentially a duopoly and are your main way of accepting payments on the internet using Paypal, Stripe, or most other payment gateways. If the customer is paying with a Visa or Mastercard it doesn’t matter which gateway you use, they are beholden to the ‘Risk Assessment’ rules that Visa and Mastercard have put in place.
While both Visa and Mastercard are legally required to prevent the purchase of illegal content, they are not legally required to allow purchases and can refuse a transaction for any reason. Why is this a problem? Because if they decide they do not want to be associated with the purchase of a product due to external pressures or even reputational damage, they can threaten to pull service from a business to force them to remove the product in question.
But it’s Just NSFW Content!
The problem here is not simply that the content they wanted removed was adult in nature. The problem is that there is a duopoly that can unilaterally and silently decide what content is not allowed to be sold, silently, without public conversation, without due process and without legal discussion.
An example:
You are a game developer and have a cool idea for a Until Dawn style horror game involving an antagonist who uses hypnotism to slowly pick off the characters. Mastercard/Visa could just say no, hypnotism is a non-consensual act so no game for you!
Another example:
You want to make a viseral narrative experience in Unreal Engine to highlight the horrors of domestic abuse. You will have no freedom to make your story as real and horrific as needed to provide impact, because it may result in you being deplatformed before you even start.
Another problem is unfair application of the rule. Large broadcasters like HBO can make Game of Thrones with a non-consensual sex scene and will be unlikely to have an issue with repercussions because they have money and a lot of it.
There are also very real concerns that due to some groups apparent inability to separate the LGBQT+ community from sex and sexuality, marginalized groups such as those will be targeted. Given my experience with some friends, which I will not be going into for privacy reasons, this is a very real issue.
Who Are Collective Shout?
You may have heard the name Collective Shout mentioned at some point. This is an apparent Australian Feminist group who have allegedly managed to kick off the events mentioned above by publishing an open letter to payment processors. If they did or if it was just a well timed coincidence remains to be seen, but they appeared to celebrate the results as a win regardless.
They also wanted to ban GTA V, probably the best selling video game of all time, and Detroit: Become Human a narrative experience, because it showed violence against women as part of the story. It seems that to them storytelling and creativity doesn’t matter, just “I don’t like this, so it must be banned!”.
The rise in groups like this (Collective Shout, Exodus Cry, Mumsnet), who manage to have an obscene amount of pull due to moral brigading is becoming quite disturbing.
Isn’t This Just Cancel Culture?
Partly. Cancel Culture is generally a small bubble that feels large to the people involved. Outside of the communities involved, I’ve found people ‘in the real world’ have no idea it is going on.
This is different. It has already disrupted a large community of creators and in some cases removed their main income source. It is important to remember: Just because you don’t like the content, and providing it is not illegal, that does not mean they do not have the right to create it.
Conclusion
What I’m trying to express here is that Visa and Mastercard, private companies beholden to shareholders and that exist only to make money, should not have the power to instantly remove a market from existance. That power should lie only with the government and only after careful consideration and due process.
We need some kind of internationally designed framework or regulation that would compel a payment processor to provide payment services to everyone equally unless the product or service is provably against the law.
Adult content creators, sex education creators, niche game developers and the LGBTQ+ creators who have been effected deserve to be able to be creative and sell their content when they are not against the law. We need to fight back to prevent a further erosion of our freedom to create.
I am not a journalist or an expert writer, so I apologise if this was a horrible read, but I felt it was important I tried to at least do something. Even if it was just get some of the people who stumble into my blog to read a little.
How Can I Help?
If you’d like to help please visit Protect Queer Creators and Sex Workers – Tell Payment Processors to STOP which highlights ways to get in touch with the relevant people.
PLEASE, please, please, if you are a NSFW creator who has been affected, be polite and respectful when contacting anyone. I’m angry, you might be angry, but if we approach them with fire & brimstone it will only enable them to say that NSFW creators are evil and disgusting people.
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