Submitted 3 weeks ago by Pro@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://old.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1magfqg/people_are_calling_to_complaint_directly_to_visa/
Lol I’m on the visa line with Visa now, they have a prepared statement about this.
They are trying to say they only ever block purchases unless it’s illegal.
They explicitly said they DO NOT moderate purchases unless it is illegal multiple times. She then told me I would have to email them to “share my perspective” and then hung up on me
I love how facts are just rendered to perspectives now.
It’s a common tactic of fascists. If you point blank refuse to accept reality and just keep repeating the same lie over and over maybe people will believe it. Of course it doesn’t really work. The people that were going to believe you already believe you, and the people who don’t believe you, will never believe you. Sadly despite the fact that it doesn’t work, they keep doing it.
Corporations lie blatantly all the fucking time.
They are usually more worried with ever having outwardly admitting something that they could be sued over, than they are with any kind of human to human sense of accountability or believability.
Every, single, thing they are mass releasing or designing as an official stance has gone through some kind of legal team, or a team under a legal team that follow’s guidelines from a legal team.
This is just how megacorps work.
They are not people, they are a sociopathic machine, operated by people who very much tend to be sociopaths.
I could not have worded it any more succinctly. This is what capitalism + the internet has done to us.
That is true, these are perspectives. Nobody knows the truth, only a projection if it upon their world.
It’s just that by that they are claiming that it’s their perspective which decides what will happen.
In other words, they are saying “so whatcha gonna do”.
Good thing what they say doesn’t matter, since goal is to tie up the lines.
I like the story but hate the fact it’s all in separate tweets.
They just wasted your time too with their strung out story. They’re in too deep!
Here’s the summarized version:
Be Polite.
Act as if you only understand ‘the effects’, have a nebulous notion of ‘the cause’.
Act like you know little other than this, and insist they explain it to you like you are a five year old.
Waste as much of their time as possible, without becoming hotheaded, instead become sad-confused.
“I’m not so much angry, as I am disappointed” type of vibe / energy.
And if possible, be genuinely kind to the low level, actual people you talk to, they literally do not make the rules.
If anyone has the GPUs to self-host LLMs to spam the shit out of them, it’s gamers. Gotta get on an easy-to-self-host project to distribute to the community 😄
you can probably use the tts tools from hume.ai
I think the limiting factor would be getting your number blocked
I support this but I find it fascinating the steam this can build and quick activism with guides and yet I never see any of this stuff when it comes to political policies
Threats to the bottom line is the thing that motivates companies faster than anything else.
Here’s a list of their toll-free phone numbers in various countries: mastercard.fi/…/global-services-phone-numbers.pdf
And the content of that file, in case that they might remove that link: Mastercard Global Service™ Local Toll-Free Telephone Numbers American Samoa 1-1-800-307-7309 Japan 00531-11-3886 Anguilla 1-800-307-7309 Korea, Republic of 0079-811-887-0823 Antigua and Barbuda 1-800-307-7309 Liechtenstein 0800-89-7092 Argentina 0800-555-0507 Luxembourg 800-2-4533 Australia 1800-120-113 Malaysia 1-800-804594 Austria 0800-07-06-138 Mexico 001-800-307-7309 Bahamas 1-800-307-7309 Monaco 0-800-90-1387 Bahrain 8000-0087 Montserrat 1-800-307-7309 Barbados 1-800-307-7309 Netherlands 0800-022-5821 Belgium 0800-1-5096 New Zealand 800-441-671 Bermuda 1-800-307-7309 Norway 800-12697 Bolivia 800-10-0172 Panama 001-800-307-7309 Bonaire 001-800-307-7309 Peru 0800-77-476 Brazil 0800-891-3294 Philippines 1-800-1-111-0061 Cambodia 800-881-001 then 877-288-3891* Poland 0-0800-111-1211 Canada 1-800-307-7309 Portugal 800-8-11-272 Cayman Islands 1-800-307-7309 Puerto Rico 1-800-307-7309 Chile 1230-020-2012 The Russia 8-800-555-02-69 China 10-800-110-7309** Saba 1-800-307-7309 China 2 10-800-711-7309*** St. Eustatius 1-800-307-7309 Colombia 01-800-912-1303 St. Maarten 1-800-307-7309 Costa Rica 0-800-011-0184 St. Kitts-Nevis 1-800-307-7309 Curacao 001-800-307-7309 Saipan (N. Marianas) 1-800-307-7309 Cyprus 080-90569 San Marino 800-870-866 Czech Republic 800-142-494 Saudi Arabia 800-844-9457 Denmark 8001-6098 Singapore 800-1100-113 Dominica 1-800-307-7309 South Africa 0800-990418 Dominican Republic 1-800-307-7309 Spain 900-822-756 Finland 08001-156234 Sweden 020-791-324 France 0-800-90-1387 Switzerland 0800-897-092 Germany 0800-071-3542 Taiwan 00801-10-3400 Greece 00-800-11-887-0303 Thailand 001-800-11-887-0663 Grenada 1-800-307-7309 Trinidad and Tobago 1-800-307-7309 Guam 1-800-307-7309 Turkey 00-800-13-887-0903 Guatemala 1-800-999-1480 Turks and Caicos 01-800-307-7309 Hong Kong 800-966677 United Arab Emirates 800-0444-3895 Hungary 06800-12517 United Kingdom 0800-96-4767 India 000-800-100-1087 United States 1-800-307-7309 Indonesia 001803-1-887-0623 Vatican City State 800-870-866 Ireland 1-800-55-7378 Venezuela 0800-1-002902 Israel 180-941-8873 Vietnam 120-11576 Italy 800-870-866 Virgin Islands, 1-800-307-7309 Jamaica 0800-307-7309 Virgin Islands, U.S. 1-800-307-7309 Last Updated 31 January 2019
Imagine if they cared this much about the Epstein files…
Protesting against christofascists in the government isn’t mutually exclusive with protesting a christofascist censorship organization. You can protest two things at once, you know.
Because Visa and MasterCard might actually change their minds. They are a business and they don’t want this shit if it becomes more annoying to deal with gamers than it is to deal with random whiny Australians they’ll reverse their decision.
Trump on the other hand is made of his mind and that’s the end of it. Obviously you should still continue to complain because it’s hilarious how upset he gets about it, but that list is never seeing the light of day until he’s out of office, one way or another.
I’d just like to point out that you seem opposed to activists bombarding a company to change its policy, but are fighting this by gathering activists to bombard a company to change its policy.
What’s changing here?
Well considering GOP reps are getting 500:1 call ratio on the Epstein files people DO care this much.
It’s possible to care about multiple things at once.
People care far more about the epstein files, its absurd to compare the two.
is there any EU law that prohibits this itch/steam situation and the mastercard contact information?
No
Would this not fall under collision?
I guess in the UK, Competitive Markets Authority may be interested if all companies in a space are colluding preventing effective competition.
Not sure if they have teeth though.
I just called visa and got the send an email spiel. I didn’t have time to do more time wasting, but it’s clear from the person I talked to they are getting lots of calls.
The person in the screenshots getting the supervisor and escalating is a top tier time waster, great work!
It’s impressive how much people get riled up about not getting porn. I don’t blame them but I also don’t see this as activism, I doubt anyone really spending the time on this cares about possible future censorship that others who are not them may face, they just want to buy their porn.
This is not about the porn. If you think about it for more than 3 seconds it becomes obvious how this is about the power finance institutions have over morals and society and how religious groups leverage moral panics as a way to weasel in harm and destroy minorities by associating immorality with marginalized groups. Just like pro-life anti choice has nothing to do with saving children, but is about hurting women and controlling their uteruses. And terfism has nothing to do with feminism but is about hurting trans people.
This is about defending fundamental rights that will get trampled under the guise of moral and religious righteousness. It’s about power and control. Porn is just the scapegoat.
I just sum it up to a failure of capitalism . The fact that two companies have so much power over this without having to pass any laws or legislation is really the worrying part. I just hope people continue to fight even after this one thing is resolved. Otherwise it will happen again because that’s how capitalism works
If these games are so important the devs can release them free somewhere else. Steam and itch aren’t the only place to find games, and sounds like there’s room for a new market just for these games if they are as popular as it seems.
I don’t want Christians dictating what I can and cannot do.
they will go for games that have violence, horror and dark humor next.
This isn’t about porn games. They removed Detroit: Become Human.
If you think this will stop at porn games, then you’re a fool.
oh I see so you’ve decided what’s going on and are now angry about that.
I’m sorry that your story version of me is letting you down. I’m not really sure what I can do about it though.
First they came for the porn…
Ya I feel really conflicted about it but I do think the outcome in the long run is good.
How about reading a bit instead of thinking you have it all figured out?
I’ve never bought a porn game nor ever played one, but I just think it’s stupid that such large companies fold to a lobby organization and start moderating the sale of products. Christian fundamentalist activists are persistent and organized, and it’s effective. I think it’s bad how a small minority is able to dictate the lives of other people.
How about Detroit: Become Human? Because they removed that as well.
There’s a solid argument that most of the porn games are some form of sexual abuse. You could argue that adults should be allowed to commit fake sexual abuse but its still likely not a positive for those who consume it.
Its interesting noone here has argued for porn games, just against censorship.
Couldn’t you just buy it on GOG or something? Steam sucks anyway why expend the effort
Talk about completely missing the point. Money processors have no business telling us what we can buy or where.
Pretty wild how they can literally gatekeep a digital entity.
Maybe they’ll demonetize Amazon next…
Maybe you should call and stop pay with their services
Great
Time to cancel some cards
Why are we not calling the CEOs and other MBA/c-suite goblins directly?
There has to be an option where digital payment is concerned that allows an intermediate step that anonymizes transactions so one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.
This bullshit really makes me not want to see digital currency at all now, of any kind.
Wow. Imagine being able to buy a video game online with a credit card, without even moving from your seat! You don’t even have to drive to the video store to rent it!
Maeve@kbin.earth 3 weeks ago
Now bombard senators and reps about Palestine, the global South, Africa, Asia, and domestically, rent caps, grocery caps, single payer, comprehensive health, living wages, safe working and living conditions, fossil fuels, climate extinction, taxing TF out of the ultrawealthy and mega corps, chemicals out of food, water, air...
otp@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
“What about” is a fantastic way to breed apathy when people are protesting something. You’re doing nothing for any of those causes with this comment. You’re making things worse for all of those causes, plus the one this post is about. And your comment only tangentially relates to the Community this post is in…
slaacaa@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
But can I be expected to sign the SKG petition, while people in West Sahara live under Morocco’s unjust occupation?
Tap for spoiler
\s
Gsus4@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
Everyone has their path into activism and politicization. Last time this happened was when wikileaks got blocked by visa/mastercard, next time, with this experience it may be one of those causes.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah they’re starting with something that hit close to home without feeling like they’ll get disappeared or ignored.
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
There’s always a gap between “Someone should do something about this” and “I should do something about this”.
Once that line gets crossed, plans like OP’s post start.
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Comparing blocking payment to wikileaks and blocking payment for porn video games is absurd. Is nuance dead?
northendtrooper@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
honestly there needs to be a git project that I can clone that uses a local LLM to auto call all of the senators, congressmen, reps, whoever. Also call all of the visa/mastercard callcenters non stop. And I mean no stop. Bonus points to use public figure voices. As in use AI to do our bidding.
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
github.com/vndee/local-talking-llm
Seems like it would be a good place to start. You’d need to write the bit in order to send the output to a voip service and receive the input from the same service.
If you could get that going in a container you could spawn a bunch of them on VPSs (finding ones that have the hardware to run local AI would probably be expensive, probably better to use a hosting service if you’re going to scale this).
I’m sure there are more conversation agent frameworks that people have built (it’s a pretty simple loop to create), but if you wanted to get started this isn’t bad.
Maeve@kbin.earth 3 weeks ago
It's already here, so...
CatDogL0ver@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You have underestimated the power of porn games. The rest of the things you complain are not comparable as “How to get an A from your professor - sorority party edition” (coming to iOS and Android).
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s also why in the middle of the previous century propaganda was mostly aimed at women. That’s killing two birds with one stone.
ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
What do those have to do with my video games?? I just wanna
grillgame!Maeve@kbin.earth 3 weeks ago
Nice empathy.
PunnyName@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Chemicals in good and water? You think you can live without chemicals?
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Mate, some of my relatives are made of chemicals
Maeve@kbin.earth 3 weeks ago
Please. You should know what I mean.
floo@retrolemmy.com 3 weeks ago
PS also Epstein files
Maeve@kbin.earth 3 weeks ago
Definitely
CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
The person who made the image had a cause they cared about and did something about it. If you care about those causes you should absolutely do the same.
Otherwise you just sound like you’re lashing out at people who are doing something about something, while you are doing nothing about anything.
By the way, how many of those causes have you called your representative about?
Maeve@kbin.earth 2 weeks ago
I'm active in my community and I'm sure my congressional representatives wish I'd move, as the ones I had prior.
It's odd how so many are quick to add their personal interpretations.
eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Getting downvoted for wanting people to advocate for better living conditions, way to go .world!
echodot@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
It’s amazing that you posted this after having a fairly good explanation as to why it’s not a good idea to conflate too many things together.
If you string too many things to a cause you dilute all of them. Especially because MasterCard and Visa have nothing to do with what’s happening in Palestine so linking the two causes together just weakens both of them.
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
.world is full of children who dont understand time yet. They think everything is final, and you just need to judge a thing once. They compile lists of who is out and who is in, and make memes appropriately. They kick out anyone who doesnt fit their group.
If someone can point out the difference between middle school and .world, I’d love to hear it because I can’t think of one.
Maeve@kbin.earth 2 weeks ago
Our priorities are showing.