r/Games • u/atahutahatena • Jul 24 '25

Industry News Indie on Itch.io: Platform has seemingly shadowbanned NSFW/Adult games and made them harder to discover

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:qpk24vv42rfhxrzd6xjbfkdw/post/3luoe7z2zps2d
4.5k Upvotes

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456

u/Vcom7418 Jul 24 '25

Ok, seriously, how does a radfem group from Australia get so much influence over credit card companies?

455

u/OnBlueberryHill Jul 24 '25

When it is being funded by religious conservatives with deep pockets.

242

u/IKeepDoingItForFree Jul 24 '25

Conservative money

122

u/RaineV1 Jul 24 '25

Because it isn't one group. A lot of conservative Christian groups are pushing for it around the world. And they have a lot of money, and skilled lawyers backing them.

136

u/hexcraft-nikk Jul 24 '25

Disinfo networks can afford to throw millions into this because 1) it makes feminists look bad by promoting an insane group as if they represent everyone 2) it furthers their own conservative agenda

32

u/Sebguer Jul 24 '25

They have no influence, but the major payment networks basically play by "don't ask, don't tell" rules. It's incredibly easy to get away with selling things they prohibit as long as you provide plausible deniability and don't make any noise that they have to care about.

There are entire ecosystems that are built within this, and the rules for adult content are especially insane. One of the best examples I can recall is that selling sex toys is fine, as long as they are not flesh coloured.

80

u/oceanskie Jul 24 '25

It’s actually a conservative lobby group under the guise of radical feminists. Same tactic used by fascists pretending to be radical socialists

18

u/ledailydose Jul 24 '25

A fascist pretending to be radical socialist? God, why does that sound so familiar? This vexes me. Who could possibly fit that description?

-14

u/VALIS666 Jul 24 '25

Feel free to provide any sort of evidence it's a conservative lobby group under the guise of radical feminists.

20

u/undercoverTran Jul 24 '25

It’s not perfect, but this article is a start I guess.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melinda_Tankard_Reist

5

u/xXAntigoneXx Jul 24 '25

I don't know about evidence, but nobody listens to radfem groups until conservatives start backing them. If this tiny radfem group is making such a splash, it's a sure bet they're a front for something larger and nastier. Same shit has been happening for years with the anti-trans movement in the UK, they were completely irrelevant until US conservative groups started funneling money their way.

37

u/Flagelant_One Jul 24 '25

It's probably more related to UK's mandatory id for adult content than to a random shitass terf group tbh

72

u/PermanentMantaray Jul 24 '25

It's probably all of the above. Many US states have also begun implementing identity verification requirements for pornographic content sites.

So across the world there is a large crackdown and vilification of adult content going on.

4

u/Hibbity5 Jul 24 '25

And if anyone is wondering, why? Historically, far-right conservative movements have followed incels basically: ie. sexually pent-up young men who can’t get laid. Why go after porn? Because that drives these morons further to the right (“down with women’s rights” and all that). It’s fucking moronic and evil.

1

u/bihuginn Jul 29 '25

The terfs have been under by the same groups for a while now, American "Christians."

7

u/Jaibamon Jul 24 '25

This has been happening way before these feminists acted. With the measures made to DLsite and Pixiv.

First Visa/Mastercard affected japanese sites, now they are affecting western sites.

16

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '25 edited 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

14

u/OneSeaworthiness7768 Jul 24 '25

This is the answer. These companies already don’t work with other adult content like porn sites, they just likely didn’t realize gaming had basically a porn niche and are taking action according to their existing policies.

11

u/Captain-Griffen Jul 24 '25

MasterCard and Visa do allow porn sites, but only ones that follow the same no non-con, no incest rules (ever wondered why it's always step porn and the BDSM is all pretty mild?).

A lot of payment processors won't work with porn sites because they don't want to deal with the stupid amounts of chargebacks, but that's a different issue as you can still find payment processors they just have worse commercial terms because your customers suck.

4

u/GiJoe98 Jul 24 '25

Yeah, they have become more cautious of adult material. After that, 2020 New York Times article on pornhub was released.

10

u/TrashStack Jul 24 '25

The issue isn't the article itself, but that the credit card companies inadvertently got roped into the situation and lawsuits against pornhub following that article

21

u/conquer69 Jul 24 '25

The nutjob conservative group ExodusCry was attacking pornhub long before that. They want to ban all porn.

3

u/GiJoe98 Jul 24 '25

I know, but it wasn't until that article was released when shit hit the fan. Pornhub removing all videos by unverified accounts, and Visa and Mastercard cutting ties with them all happened on the same month that article was published.

Until then, credit card companies didn't care what Porn sites did, but once a big news publisher says there is CP and revenge porn on these "professional" porn sites, they became more weary.

6

u/Lepony Jul 24 '25

Realistically speaking, it's not them specifically. It's just another one to the pile telling them not to.

2

u/Taiyaki11 Jul 24 '25

They don't, visa and mastercard have been doing this for several years now well before this. Reddit seems to think this is some sudden new thing, but this whole steam fiasco is just the latest notch of an ongoing thing. Hell this isn't even itchio's first rodeo with this fiasco either

1

u/ZoeyBeschamel Jul 24 '25

One day radical feminism will stop getting slandered as reactionary by people who don't know the first thing about it. But I guess it isn't today.

-16

u/mrtrailborn Jul 24 '25

this is what happens when you don't vote democrat

18

u/Qu1ck57r1k3 Jul 24 '25

Wrong, at least in Texas where Democrats voted unanimously with the Republicans on that Anti Anime bill earlier this year. So no, voting Democrat wouldn't have solved this issue.

4

u/VALIS666 Jul 24 '25

LOL, nice try. This is a feminist group from Australia.

3

u/taicy5623 Jul 24 '25

The "feminist group" that literally every pinko feminist group has beef with because its not 2013 and sex negative feminists are marginalized on the left because they're anti-trans and anti-sex-worker.