Visa, Mastercard threaten to stop providing payment services for Steam, Itch.io unless they remove NSFW games from platforms

Leftist gamers have launched targeted campaigns against Visa and Mastercard in response to sexually graphic NSFW games being removed from two of the largest digital gaming platforms, Steam and Itch.io.

Collective Shout, an Australian anti-porn group, demanded that payment processors cut ties with platforms that offer NSFW games, citing content such as "rape and incest." Itch.io removed all pornographic content from search and browsing in order to "protect core payment infrastructure," so that payments for games across the platform wouldn't be blocked, per The Guardian. The digital gaming platform did not provide advance notice to NSFW material providers, according to ECommerce North America.

Steam, which has generated 132 million monthly users, followed in Itch.io's footsteps several days later, removing the ability of customers to purchase sexually graphic content. Valve, which owns Steam, said, "Loss of payment methods would prevent customers from being able to purchase other titles and game content on Steam."

Users on the social media platform Bluesky have been compiling lists of impacted "censored artists," many of whom identify their NSFW content as LGBTQ+ or kink-friendly. These users have also started to organize mass call-in and email campaigns, flooding Visa and Mastercard with their disapproval, WIRED reported.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a nonprofit that supports game developers, expressed disapproval of the "censorship," according to WIRED, arguing that it disproportionately impacts developers who identify as queer, trans, and people of color, in addition to negatively affecting creator revenue.
 

The IGDA has asked concerned parties to contact Visa and Mastercard directly and to support online petitions demanding that these payment processing companies stop interfering with sex work and entertainment. A Change.org petition that has garnered over 185,000 signatures states, "Mastercard and Visa have increasingly used their financial control to pressure platforms into censoring legal fictional content. Entire genres of books, games, films, and artwork are being demonetized or deplatformed - not because they're illegal, but because they offend the personal values of executives or activist groups."

One artist, who makes adult content, told WIRED that she contacted Visa several times this week, but claims to have been hung up on.

"My audience, my friends, and my colleagues are all LGBTQ+, and are being overwhelmingly affected by this kind of censorship, where merely existing as a queer person is seen as inherently pornographic and fetishistic," the artist said. "I also want to stress that all of us are working and creating art well within the bounds of law."

Caitlin Roper, campaign manager for Collective Shout, said the activist group had "no communication with payment processors" other than approaching Visa and Mastercard with an open letter. Roper said the companies were approached directly after Steam failed to respond to their inquiry.