Hello there !
At this point, you probably know about the story of everything that happened this week, but let's go back to it, for those who might have missed the news.
Summary of the situation : It all start with a Australian puritanical group, called Collective Shout. They are well known for wanting to ban everything they don't like, and remove it entirely. For example, they tried to get GTA 5 banned because of all the things you could to do women (the same that you can do for mens), or Detroit, becomes Human, because it display picture of childrens mistreated (which is the whole point of the game, showing how awful this is). And now, they decided to target NSFW games next.
So, they sent a open letter, as well as a few calls, to the big payment processors that are Mastercard and Visa, asking them to pressure Steam to remove NSFW content they didn't judged appropriate. It target all the game having Rape or Incest content. And Steam obliged, and banned all the NSFW games having this kind of content, even if they fulfilled all of Steam's rules. Steam also added a new rule, that content that MAY violates the rules by payment processors is banned. But that was just the start...
The attention then went to Itch.io, big platform for small indy games, and home to a lot of porn games. And once again, Itch.io, complied, bending the knee to the big payment processors. And did they do ? Ban some games with problematic content ? Oh no ! They delisted ALL the games with a Adult tag, so they don't appear on the platform anymore, and unless you have the link, it's impossible to get to them. And it seems some where you just outright deleted, without any refund for those who bought these games. To give you an idea of how massive this is, the platform went to 28.000 games in total, all categories, to only 7.000, after the adult content purge. Games which just had adult themes, like gore or sensitive content, got removed as well, not just porn. And of course, they did this immediatly, without any warning to everyone...
And sadly, that's even not where it end. On Friday evening, Twitter suddenly decided to hide all NSFW content for all users in Europe, saying they'll need to do an age check first. When will they do it ? No idea ! Will you need to give official infos about yourself, like your ID ? That might very much be the case. Did they gave a warning, or anything ? Of course not ! And while at the moment, just changing your contry in your account info worked to bypass it, as of today, it seems to be no longer the case...
And it keep on going... In the UK, you now have to do face verification to access Discord if it is noted as adult only. How long before they push on the P site, or Sub ? How long can we last against these people that really want us gone, and are doing everything they can to erase us from the internet ?
My situation :
I'm afraid...
This has come a shock to all of us. Yeah, they always has been severe bans and action against NSFW content, and each time it's awful. Is this time different ? Well, it's just a lot in one week, for sure.
I have a lot of friends who suddenly lost most of their income, and the dissaperance on massive platforms like twitter and Itch will clearly hurt our reach. And as I said, we don't know where it'll stop. If some of the big supporting sites go for another round of bans, a lot of us will loose our income, our job, and our passion. I've seen many artist start to rethink they long terms plans, or just drop it completly. People are tired of this endless stress, and the risk of loosing everything at any instant. And how could you blame them for that ?
Honestly, I've felt the same at first... It was already a pretty bad week for me, with plenty of personal problems (nothing big, don't worry, just plenty of small things) and the tiredness of the crunch for the BETA. I've seen Steam go down, and though "here we are, another round of bans, yayyy...". Then Itch.io happened. And it was the moment I got really worried, as it was massive and sudden. I was on this platform, and while it wasn't a source of income, it was still a big open place for more people to discover my work. And then, when the Twitter ban poped up, I was devastated. In three days, I had lost most of my platform to share my work. And it was really the moment I felt I might loose everything in the upcoming week, if it kept up like that... What would I become ?... I cancelled my plans for the weekend, and took a good day to rest, think about it, recover, and spend time with friends. I needed to brigthen my mood.
Well, I am back, and I'm feeling better. Am I terrified to loose everything I've worked for all these years ? For sure ! Will I just stay theyre and mourn until they come after me ? Hell no !!!
I am French, and trust me, I know how to raise my voice and march in the streets when something turn to shit !!!
Are we really gonna let these payment processor decide for us what we can, and can't consume ? It's our money, it's our hobby, leave it to us ! We are adults, and we can do what we want, so leave us alone ! We are just horny gooners trying to enjoy our day, so don't come ruin everything ! We can't let this happen !
Fight back :
You can be angry at Collective Shout. For sure, they're the ones who started all of this. But remember that it didn't took much to convince Mastercard and Visa to take down everything. And with the power they had, everyone decided to comply without an hesitation. So be angry at Collective Shout, but be also angry at Steam, Twitter and Itch ! They're the ones who decided to ditch us. And above all, be angry at Mastercard and Visa, who pushed this using all their weight as multibillions companies that sites mostly rely on to survive.
And how to channel this anger, into something efficient, to fight back and regain the right they're trying to remove from us ? Well, sign petitions against this nonsense ! Call your representative, saying this an outrage to your right as a consumer. Call the payment processors, telling you don't agree with their actions.
Here's some sites that give the links to the main petitions, as well as giving you help and advices on who to call and what to do :
https://stop-paypros.neocities.org/https://stopcollectiveshout.com/ Be annoying ! The call center of the payment processors have objectives to reach, by reaching satisfaction as quickly as possible. The longer you call will take, the more it'll dip their stats, and the more pressure it'll put on them. And specially if you come back each day, saying it won't be resolved until they take these policies down. But most important of all, be polite, and respectful. Show that you're just an adult, well behaved, but you just can't stand their bullshit. No need for insult or anything, you'll just be categorized as "the bad guys". Also, avoid leaving personnal informations.
An open letter and a few call from a puritanical Australian movement started all this. We are many, many more than them. We can stop this. I know, it's not fun, and probably not what you planned to do today. It was defintively not on my plans either. But we just can't let this go. We need to fight back. To protect out internet, and the content we enjoy. If we don't fight back now, who will when they go for their next victims ?
Be horny, be safe, and fight for your rights. Thanks for reading me.