Comment on Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down, but Valve says payment processors 'specifically cited' a Mastercard rule about damaging the brand

• orclev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Valves statement also matches with the claims of Itch.io, Stripe, and what Collective Shout themselves have claimed. So we’ve got two different claims, on one side are Visa and Mastercard, and on the other we’ve got literally everyone else. I feel pretty confident about which one is a load of bullshit.

  It’s also worth noting that Visa and Mastercard are playing semantic games with their statements. Nobody ever claimed they were “refusing legal transactions”, rather what they’re doing is threatening to stop working with any business that doesn’t implement censorship that they’re happy with. It’s a subtle but important difference and they’ve never denied that’s what they’re doing.

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  • davidagain@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Isn’t owning a credit card age gating anyway? I don’t think you can legally own a credit card in the UK.

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    • orclev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      You would think, but I believe the law(s) require verification of a photo ID. I haven’t looked too closely into the UK one, but the way the laws are written for a couple of the US states a credit card doesn’t meet the requirements. There’s also the fact that many of the preview images and videos for porn games on Steam show nudity and/or sex and you can access those without needing to purchase the game (just the birthday question to “verify” your age).

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      • Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        If you need to be 18 to own a credit card, then you’re old enough to buy those games. And buying with steam gift card doesn’t involve MasterCard or Visa for that payment, so it’s literally none of their business.

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    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Credit card, yes, but a debit card that can be used for online transactions? I had one at 13. My mom had to co-sign for it, but I got one when I setup an account to deposit my paper route checks.

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      • davidagain@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Ah, true, yes.

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  • baronvonj@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Are the payment processors saying Visa"MC told them to not process payments for this content? Or are they smjist citing a section of the agreement when being asked why they’re telling retailers to take down this content?

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    • orclev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Nobody on any side has cited any sections of any agreement specifically. The closest we’ve got is the statement from Stripe who is the payment processor who recently had to turn down business with a womens sexual education charity (despite spending months trying to get to an agreement) and the reason they cited was contractual obligations with banking networks including Visa and Mastercard. They stated they want to be able to process payments for porn companies, and that they’re exploring other options, but they couldn’t at this time.

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      • Zorque@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        From an article posted yesterday

        “Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,” Valve’s statement sent over email to Kotaku reads. “Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks. Payment processors communicated this with Valve, and we replied by outlining Steam’s policy since 2018 of attempting to distribute games that are legal for distribution. Payment processors rejected this, and specifically cited Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7 and risk to the Mastercard brand.”

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      • Microw@piefed.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Sounds like Visa and Mastercard have clauses in their contracts that they don't even care about themselves, but payment processors like Stripe are bound to then

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  • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Well said, that is an accurate analysis of the situation

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• brachiosaurus@mander.xyz ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  both because they’re not responsible for this shit show

  Nobody is forcing them to use mastercard and visa services

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  • Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Other than that being how a huge portion of Americans access their money.

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    • brachiosaurus@mander.xyz ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Pick a bank that use different sercives

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