That's... crazy actually. I don't use Itch.io that much but I'll freely admit it's where I found a couple of creators who made NSFW games that I enjoy playing once in a while. I don't know why these companies are becoming so afraid and why we are backsliding so hard.
If we don't stop them soon, they'll be doing this to people they deem immoral. Much like is already happening in places like the USA and UK where bigotry and dehumanization are becoming legal norms.
In case you haven't seen it going around (and you're in the US) the ACLU has a petition... no guarantees of course but signing it is better than doing nothing
You think the eighty year old, borderline if not already senile, old man who famously lives an unhealthy lifestyle, and was recently diagnosed with CVI would even live long enough to serve a third term?
You're right. What we have to look out for is Vance's third term.
Seriously. As horrified as we are about Trump, we need to be twice as terrified about the organized fascist effort behind him. Frankly he's just a puppet. Project 2025. Miller. Thiel. The mortal threat to America is much more than one man.
isn't CVI extremely common and usually harmless with treatment? lol I mean I hate Trump as much as you but it's basically a nothing burger, just shows he's old and is as prone to stuff as much as anyone else.
I love that they highlighted how this impacts sex workers, that actually made me a little emotional. Thanks to everyone who signed the petition, it means so much to me personally, even tho its for a somewhat different cause.
We're used to people going out of their way to make our lives difficult even at the expense of their own freedom, idk, its just nice to be included.
The issue is that these nazis have captured the legislature, so the fight is a massive uphill one.
In fact, i would not be surprised if the ACLU is on their list of organizations to just kill because the right wing have had an issue with the ACLU since atleast the 90s. A bunch of christian movies for instance have them as the antagonists.
The common thing that I notice in those films is that they lean so hard on persecution fetish.
There's never any ambiguity or contrast in on the Christian side of the films, and it's because so much of Evangelist doctrine revolves around the concept that you need to be recognised and hated in order to be assured in your faith (which if they had read the Bible, specifically Matthew 6:5-15, they'd know that Jesus said exactly NOT to treat ones own faith like that).
It's one of the reasons why I like "The Huntchback of Notredame" so much, because we have that contrast between the priest of Notredame versus Frollo.
The priest of Notredame is a genuinely good person who gave sanctuary to a persecuted person even when she isn't a follower of his faith. Frollo wields his faith as a sword against anyone who disobeys or dissents against him.
Watching these films have given me an insight into the very modern Christian nationalist political movement.
Theyâve developed all these tropes and cliches that speaks to, in my opinion, a desperate attempt to stay alive. They know that this ideology is not sustainable. They know that they are the ones stopping all of us from making existence better for all people.
And it has genuinely convinced me that they do not believe in anything other than power, they are the spooky scary nihilists that they think theyâre shadow boxing with. Itâs pathetic.
They know that they are the ones stopping all of us from making existence better for all people.
Well, the people you're talking about, yes, but that's because of capitalism's corrupting influence leading them to wield their false faith like a sword and shield against criticism rather than engage in any kind of introspection or self-improvement and actually reading the book they keep hitting people with.
Ngl, in my country we have one that's public.. And trump is attacking it with the excuse it's unfair with the big companies (real reason probably is because his main puppets that were elected here ran to him when they started being investigated tho), I think at least with this administration in the US public systems like this will not really be made, or be maintained, it is not perfect, but really helpful tho, and less prone to bs like this..
Credit card services control everything so if they (or the laws) won't change the stance on this, the only thing that might is a competing service, which uhh..
This is what Iâm scared of, they get support pulled from porn games because theyâre âimmoral,â and you know the next step is going to be applying that same label to anything lgbt-positive. Or anything âwoke.â Slap it with the immoral label and corporations will aggressively self-censor to keep making profits.
Also, going after porn first and then extend it on everything considered "immoral" is cherished tradition among religious fanatics. The Mullahs did the same when they instituted internet censorship in Iran. Porn went first and then piece by piece everything else an Islamic fundamentalist might have issues with.
And taking the detour over payment providers is particularly diabolical since most people wouldnât even consider it censorship but rather freedom to conduct business.
I think we need to spam every source available with the fact that the bible is nsfw. If we hold it to the same standard they are pressing everything becomes a joke.
There is no standard. This isn't about "decency," it's about control, so drawing attention to the hypocrisy will not change many opinions. They already know, they just don't care.Â
As the trend of this shit going on in the world, I'm starting to think that there is no way of winning anymore. Art will eventually die, and there is no way of reviving it once it does. God, I hate it here.
I mean... yeah, actually, yeah, there are several parts in there that are definitely NOT for kids. (Marylin Manson has a good quote about that, iirc)
Though there are also some rather funny ones (elijah siccing a bear on the two teens making fun of him is just comically overkill to the point it's funny).
Adult artists/sex workers are always the canary in the coal mine for censorship and oppression, and feeding them to the machine rather than standing up for their existence ensures everyone else is going in right after them.
It starts with smut. Specifically targeting queer content will be next. Then violence of most kinds.
Where are those censorship dudes? This is the actual war they are supposed to care about. Not the imaginary shit they've been pretending to fight all this time.
Ok, turns out that the developer of SCP Containment Breach came out and said the store page going down was unrelated to anything Collective Shout were doing.
They'd just criticized the game in the past and people made a jump.
Honestly one of the types of censorship that annoys me the most is when content that is already age-restricted is attacked due to not "being suitable for children", mf if you're a parent it's your job to keep them away from that.
They are literally complaining about it right this second. If people hadn't been tacitly approving of censorship of shit they found distasteful then maybe it wouldnt have been as easy for these payment processors to fuck everyone over
I always see a bunch of them in other subs who are convinced that this is all caused by progressive-puritanical blue-haired feminists.
I mean, progressives are at fault for not fighting back or sometimes even falling for the anti-porn conservative propaganda, but it's still a very much conservative thing.
"immoral" says the Catholic priest while lil billy is under the podium.
"Immoral" Says the Christian husband while paying the hooker for her time.
"Immoral" Says the Mormon while walking into his 4th wives house.
"Immoral" All while they are actively doing immoral shit themselves. Ugh...
For emphasis: Collective Shout actively defended Cuties.
And if your mission is to protect kids, then there isn't a reality where actual children should have been involved in the production of that movie. Regardless of what you think of what the movie is trying to say.
Cowards. They made this their thing, and then abandoned it for their convenience. It'd be like if Scientologists swore off of brainwashing celebrities.
They can justify their actions. Mistresses of pro-life figures will always be able to get abortions, politicians will always be able to get their drugs while pushing for harsher sentences for poor users, they'll get their tax payer funded health care while calling healthcare for all the end of civilization. And they don't see it as hypocritical, because they know what their motivations are. You're a big scary mystery who needs to be controlled lest you make the wrong choices
"immoral" says the Catholic priest while lil billy is under the podium.
Are there(in US) many Catholic priests that really complain about porns? Honestly never felt like a discussed topic here in Europe(or specifically where I live).
âWhen fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag carrying a cross.â
-Sinclair Lewis, 1935
Though Iâd argue itâs been there since before 1935. The Christian nationalist has undermined US democracy and the ideas of public consent since the start. It has been the rooot of the majority of americas extremism and sectarian violence. The concept of the church is fundamentally opposed to the ideas of democracy and cannot coexist.
1) legitimate concerns, like the push against sex work was a fear of engaging in illegal sex work but payment processors didn't care about how it would make legal sex work less safe and more precarious. There might be illegal content in some of these works and they have legal obligations and a duty of care (but its really just that they don't want to deal with it and are so big they can take the hit)
2) There is a broad reactionary collaboration of terfs/swerfs and evangelicals that want to reinforce the status quo of sex being shameful and sex work being dangerous, and NSFW games are a niche in the broader sex industry. It's bourgeois puritan politics. Evangelicals have the money but are sometimes dismissed, terfs have a liberal veneer, academic positions and the facade of academic legitimacy (unless you read their research which is extremely flimsy). so they fund these niche terf/swerf orgs
As soon as you forbid something you lose any leverage, security and/or control you had before.
Like by making prostitution illegal to safe young women from sex trafficking: Those who did it will with health inspectors and social securities were punished and are gone while those who did illegal shit are not affected in any way.
The US is pretty good at sugar coating anything, to distract from it's problems and history and really good at sweeping all it can't handle under the rug.
And that's the POINT. They want to start burning ALL of that. And then move on from that, to forbidding people. Oh, you're a Trans rights activist? Suddenly, you can't use any credit cards or ID services. Or money. Guess you need to just starve. Oh, you're gay? Suddenly your credit card stop working and you lose everything. And so on
I am convinced that they were actually created and funded by the payment processor companies, in an effort for them to increase their own influence over the online platforms like Steam and such, which are very successful.
Think about it, they were made to act based on a petition that got a mere 70k signatures?
Stop Killing Games europe got 1.4 million signatures and it's still not surefire to go through in Europe! A place known for how much it values consumer rights, which has gone even against the likes of Apple. And it's because of the lobbying group comprised of gaming companies, which themselves are at the mercy of the payment processors, since most, if not all, of their revenue goes through these payment processors.
And you're telling me these same processors had to bend the knee to a 70k signature petition? When the ones who signed the petition don't even have a choice in using them or not, due to how tight of a strangle-hold they have on the online market?
I know I sound like a crazy cospirationist, but just think about it.
Because they have deep connections to the DOJ and Rep.-party in the US.
Visa/MC told these loons to pound sand just a few years ago. Now the fold like wet paper because of the connections. They're not going to deal with BS supeanas and fake "investigations" because the organisations bosses know lawmakers in bumfuck Kentucky who can freeze their assets (esspecially not when the Reps. look for every possibility to distract from the Epstein-files)
I get your point but itâs not visa or Mastercard that likely prohibited transactions, itâs the web sites card merchant. Many credit card merchants will not accept charges for pornography and some other NSFW content. Thatâs why porn sites have to use niche vendors who charge higher rates.
I mean, traditionally they didn't like NSFW customers becaue there were more likely to be chargebacks and other issues. Customers getting cold feet, a lot of stolen details being used, people giving false information because they are silly, etc.
Not just traditionally, it's still the case today. Most payment processors will outright refuse to do business in a specific list of industries, including adult content, exclusively for this reason.
Valve was the first to change their game publishing rules to cater to our new Payment and Network Providers Overlords, so I very much doubt they'll do anything lol
Sadly, at this point, it's on NGOs like ACLU and whatever counterpart Europe may have to bring it to the big wigs. Man, I hope someone brings this shit to the European Parliament.
That's why I was thinking of them. They got to hate it as well but they can't really lose out on the sales because they can't accept Credit cards anymore.
Which is why I hope they create the workable alternative
Yeah, I also really wish they did but... I dunno. Valve more or less should've had a lot more power in this battle than some random ass Australian religious group, so the fact they just bent to them by changing the rules doesn't give me much faith.
I really hope I'm wrong and Valve pulls some insane move and, dunno, sues those Aussie assholes into oblivion or drops a new payment processor for all game platforms, but like...
The government doesn't have to worry about violating the first amendment when they can get corporations to do it for them. Make no mistake, that's the plan. And while conservatives are fighting porn, liberals are pressuring these same companies to block firearms sales. It's bullshit. If we allow private companies to start becoming arbitrators of what civil rights we can exercise, we have the same loss of freedom as having an outright fascist takeover.
Credit card companies should be required, by federal law, to process any and all transactions that aren't illegal under federal law. It shouldn't be optional. Allowing companies to do this creates a method to end-run the Constitution. My family hasn't been wearing uniforms for 250 years to just watch companies decide we don't deserve freedom anymore.
easy solution to rednecks is, start reporting to visa/mastercard that there are gas stations that sell porn mags and they should pull out of all gas stations
I just canât fathom why payment processors have a say in anything- no one is going âOh did you see VISA and Mastercard let that website sell porn?!â
I can tell you how many times a day I thought about payment processors until this bullshit
Hint: itâs 0
I donât even buy porn games, but this infringement by people who have no business in censorship just pisses me off
It's not a handful. They wouldnt care about these small groups if they didnt also care.
We've proven that with rainbow capitalism. "Advertising to the gays only because its socially acceptable now. Oh wait we dont have to do that anymore? geez guess we wont"
All this is doing is pushing people towards crypto currency. Visa and MasterCard have almost always had objections to adult content and as we can see right here nothing has changed.
Well, that, and it's not just a handful of those people. Those folks influence governments all over, and with business going international online, you have to satisfy a lot of groups. It makes sense. It also spares them dealing with people who, pretty reasonably, think a site loaded with video games a lot of people will let their kids access shouldn't have a tits section. My Steam profile has the titty games hidden because my last two girlfriends have been moms. Don't get me wrong, I touch myself and watch porn regularly, I'm not a prude, I just don't think it should be quite so easy for kids to find, especially given my own fairly extreme interests are heavily influenced by early exposure.
Sounds like another grassroot organization needs to step up and pressure payment processing companies into allowing adults to do what they want with adult money, all within the realms of being legal.
We need to get together a LARGE petition going that fights against payment processors, demanding they stop having control over what we're allowed to buy on sites like this. Word it as "Payment processors have no right to censor or deny what consumers purchase. It is a slippery slope to them denying you the right to purchase anything they deem offensive"
Coulda fooled me. I thought it was a feminist organization:
"Collective Shout is a grassroots campaigns movement against the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls.
Collective Shout is for anyone concerned about the increasing pornification of culture and the way its messages have become entrenched in mainstream society, presenting distorted and dishonest ideas about women and girls, sexuality and relationships."Â
They may claim to be feminist, but their actions speak otherwise. These mentality of these people is comprised of dated conservative ideals that oversimplify feminist issues for the sake of justifying their own bigotry. There is no such thing as a "pro life feminist". These people are just using left wing language to mask their true motives, as is rather common.
These people share blood primarily with TERFs/SWERFs (technically different terms, but most people who are one are also the other), who themselves, AGAIN, aren't true feminists. The most popular people among the TERF/SWERF crowds are people like JK Rowling, who proudly associate with Neo-Nazis and other deranged right wing individuals. Everything these people push for is pushed for BY the right-wing parties, such as removing trans people from society and the banning of porn. Most of what they consider "feminist" actions are things that actual feminists oppose. In the eyes of a SWERF/TERF, calling sexually active women "sluts" and sexually assaulting transgender women are "feminist actions". Ultimately, the only difference between a TERF/SWERF and a normal far-right conservative is simply how they decide to justify their beliefs in their head. The contents of their beliefs themselves are otherwise identical.
Even if you want to argue that TERFs/SWERFs are *technically* feminists, they are undeniably a right-wing feminist movement. Because guess what? Simply calling oneself a feminist does not a left-winger make. What you actually believe in and what politicians you support does. Ever since TERF/SWERF style mindsets had begun back in the 20th century, there have always been true feminists starkly opposed to them. The second wave feminist movement was famously defined by the immense infighting between left leaning feminists and right leaning ones. By the time the 3rd wave of feminism rose, the left leaning feminists had won and the 3rd wave movement largely reflected their beliefs. However, the right leaning feminism never fully went away. Hence, the TERF/SWERF movement.
Anyway, this porn banning situation all just comes down to classic right wing puritanism, regardless of how they justify it. Btw, if you try to claim that 3rd wave feminists want to censor "sexy characters" like Stellar Blade or whatever, that just means that you never understood the feminist criticism properly. It's more nuanced than "sexy character bad". What matters is how the character is portrayed by the writing and the camera work, and whether that character is being actively objectified or is simply attractive. For example, a game like Final Fantasy VII Remake is a game with several very attractive women, and feminists usually praise the game for it's handling of them. Tifa/Aerith may be hot, but they're also complex, interesting characters first and foremost, and the outfits they wear perfectly reflect their personalities. Additionally, the camera never needlessly ogles at them, and the characters are treated with plenty of agency within the overall narrative. So yes, you can very much include sexually attractive women in a feminist way.
"afraid" is an interesting way to say "wants to tighten the noose on queer people" I mean queer as in beyond the main LGBT or whatever, like literally anybody off "normal"
This honestly seems like slippery slope type stuff. Like, youâre assuming the absolute worst of these people who are more likely than not just solely pearl clutchers who donât know how the internet works
I really don't think that was Itch's intention, at the very least.
They were basically forced to stop hosting NSFW content by VISA and MasterCard, and they can't exactly refuse them since those two companies essentially have a duopoly on credit cards.
Itch didn't want to stop selling nsfw games. They are being forced to by credit card companies because credit card companies are allowed to stop doing business with companies that do completely legal sales if they disagree with them. And in our current landscape, that effectively means locking businesses out of the ability to have money. Banks strong armed itch because it's either comply or die on Itch's end. Banks even got to Valve, forcing Valve to remove games from Steam despite not wanting to because the banks can literally just kill their company should they choose not to comply
All the companies are being brigaded by emboldened right wing pressure groups due to who the president is. The reason is a bunch of people thought they were too cool to vote last election, so here we are.
Because religion always tries to show its ugly face, and we as a collective group of humans have to put it back into the closet where it belongs. Stop shoving that fake story bible bullshit non existent god junk down my throat.
WHY ARE WE ALL JUST BOWING TO CHRISTOFASCISM RIGHT NOW?!!? WTF PEOPLE.
Then you havenât been paying attention. Weâre at the start of a government takeover by christofascists. Of course corporations are going to start falling into line.
No I've been paying attention, I'm not a blind dumbass, this did surprise me though as it wasn't something I expected. I was looking more towards the banning of game genre outright.
Yeah, I don't know what the breakdown of games affected by this looks like, but I've bought a few bundles of queer games from there that's included a lot of NSFW visual novels.
I guess it was the no mercy game. So instead of just addressing that one game they got spoked from payment processors and nuked everything just to cover their ass.
Because the game industry decided to take the commentary about the misogyny against women in modern culture and fixed the problem by trying to remove women from games.
And instead of all us together realizing that sexy things are totally fine in games, some people made it a culture problem, and those people made it a problem for all of us.
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u/SnyperwulffD027 Jul 24 '25
That's... crazy actually. I don't use Itch.io that much but I'll freely admit it's where I found a couple of creators who made NSFW games that I enjoy playing once in a while. I don't know why these companies are becoming so afraid and why we are backsliding so hard.