So, The Credit Card Companies Are Coming For Our Indie Games Too

Indie games platform itch.io becomes the latest victim of Collective Shout, an Australian based anti-porn group, that was responsible for Steam’s recent purge of “explicit” games and stricter moderation protocols.

Earlier this month, the group pressured payment processors, including Visa, Mastercard, and even PayPal about their services being used on platforms containing explicit and graphic content—”rape, incest and child sexual abuse-themed games”. After pressure from their payment processors, Valve announced that they would be delisting hundreds of games they deemed to be in violation of the “rules and standards” set by said processors.

The start of which is credited to the rape simulation game ‘No Mercy’, which has since been removed from both Steam and itch.io. However the damage was done and this led to a massive purge of “adult” titles, including those not featuring any of the aforementioned graphic content.

Fans and creators alike voiced their dissatisfaction with the decision on their socials, pointing out the inconsistency with the games being delisted—many of which did not violate the new policy or seem to feature any explicit content. While others noted, allowing credit card companies to dictate content on platforms like Steam is a slippery slope to more broad reaching and draconian censorship policies in the future.

Now, indie platform itch.io has had to release their own statement after being pressured to deindex and remove all adult and NSFW content from their browse and search pages. This news is doubly disheartening for indie games and visual novel fans, as itch.io is the hub for a diverse and wide reaching collection of quality indie content. This latest censorship attack has led to indie titles being pulled from the site overnight, with little to no warning to creators before the removals. Many developers and creators have taken to their own social media accounts to vent their frustrations about the situation.

And, much like with the Steam purge, this new wave of censorship also includes titles not featuring the graphic or explicit content at the forefront of Collective Shout’s crusade. Leading to a fear that this is a sweeping attack on games that don’t align with the more conservative sensibilities of the group. Which given the current political climate in the US, might not be too far off as we have seen tighter restrictions on certain goods and services at the whims of overzealous political leaders.

The gaming industry is no stranger to increased scrutiny from conservatives, usually though their concerns are with the “abundance of violence” in games. With some crediting video game for an increase in violent tendencies in individuals (which is ridiculous). However, this new attack is more concerning because it’s putting accessibility of content not in the hands of the consumer, but in the hands of larger, faceless organizations guided only by their one-sided personal agendas that do not take into consideration the thoughts and feelings of others. Any agency consumers might have on what media we consume is gradually being taken away by those with the privilege and power to force platforms like Steam and itch.io to remove content by putting pressure on what hurts them most—their revenue.

What makes this situation more horrifying is the fact that what is deemed “inappropriate” content is completely subjective, wholly dependent on current social, political, and cultural trends or in this case the whims of a conservative echo chamber. LGBTQ+ content is always under attack from conservatives and while it isn’t explicitly under the purview of this sweep; it’s not a stretch to say there is cause for concern for future “content review”.

While the intentions of Collective Shout are at their core not wholeheartedly malicious—yes, that type of graphic content should be regulated and yes, minors should not have access to graphic adult content. But, that is the responsibility of their guardians, and the platform to moderate the type of content that is accessible to underaged individuals. Not my VISA card.

On top of that the broad reaching reactionary response from itch.io and Steam has made this situation much more upsetting.

In an effort to quickly comply with demands, both platforms have enacted broad sweeps of anything deemed NSFW or adult, which mean that games and titles not containing this content are getting delisted alongside actual offensive works. Several developers like ebi-hime have noted that any game with a “NSFW”, “erotic” or “adult” tag have been effected by the latest itch.io sweep. Which mirrors similar complaints following the Steam purge.

In this case, itch.io representative promise a more nuanced content moderation and review in the coming days and weeks, but the immediate reactions have had devastating effects on independent creators who rely on the platform for their income. With no timeline on how long it will take for the platform to review and reinstate wrongfully affected parties there is inevitably going to be a huge lose of income for smaller creators who use the platform as their main host for their content.

While this is not the first time something like this has happened (DLsite has consistently had issues with securing payment processors for their platform, which features primarily adult content), in the wake of a much larger conversation on censorship and accessibility, this current wave sets a bad precedent for how platforms deal with situations like this. Thankfully other publishers, like JAST are stepping up to offer a platform for affected creators.

At the end of the day, the only person with the right to determine what games I buy online should be me, myself, and I—not my goddamn credit card company. I worked for the money, y’all just need to approve the damn charge, not judge me for playing BL smut. Mind your damn business.

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