Collective Shout, an Australian organization lobbies the payment processors to ban adult content from the internet, The payment processors acquiescence to Collective Shout.
Collective Shout is a self-described feminist non-partisan organization, but has alleged ties with anti-trans and conservative organizations. The group has developed a reputation as a sort of puritan crusade that targets everything from Detroit: Become Human to Tyler, the Creator.
gameshub.com/…/australian-anti-porn-group-collect…
Although itch.io has an adult content filter that can be toggled in a user’s settings, indicating whether they want explicit content to be visible in search results and on the store page, the sudden deindexing of NSFW comics, zines, books, games, and other published products on the website means that unless users type in direct links to explicit products, they cannot access them. As is often the case when explicit content is removed en masse, LGBTQIA+, furry, and other content that is considered “obscene” by conservative groups has also been delisted or removed, as reported by The Transfeminine Review. This is especially dangerous in a time when politicians and others in power (i.e. influential billionaires) are actively dehumanizing and disappearing trans people, immigrants, and anyone who steps out of line with the current regime.
Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
visa and MasterCard are forcing steam and other companies to either remove games THEY don’t agree with or be dropped by Mc/visa.
it’s just corporate censorship at its finest. credit card companies can essentially tell steam what they are or are not allowed to sell for some weird as fuck reason.
engadget.com/…/steam-now-bans-games-that-violate-…
jewbacca117@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The weird as fuck reason is steam would no longer be able to take payments through MC or visa. That’s an insane loss of revenue. Valve would have to pay a third party to take payments.
GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
That’s such an unnecessary gotcha response lol. Obviously they are reliant on those payment processors for their revenue, which is the very reason they are complying.
The point is that those two payment processors essentially run credit card payments in the west, and use that dominance to force their values on their clients.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 7 hours ago
not credit card, debit
iii@mander.xyz 1 day ago
A dominant oligarchic government/industry cooperation for sure. But I don’t think they have values. Just cost analysis: the price of litigation and punishment.
WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Another great example of why their monopoly racket should be destroyed.
iii@mander.xyz 1 day ago
If only there exists a technology