Indie Video Game Marketplace Itch.io announced this week that it has “Deindexed” adult and non-safe-by-work games that removed them from its review and search pages.
The move, the company said, was in response to a campaign of Collective Shout (a lawyer group that has previously criticized video games, rap music and lingerie advertising) that targeted both itching.
In an open letter addressed to leaders at PayPal, Mastercard, Visa and other payment processors, Collective Shout said that games “support men’s sexualized abuse and torture of women and girls flying in the light of efforts to tackle violence against women.”
“We do not see how it facilitates payment transactions and the resulting financial benefit of these violent and unethical games, are in line with your business values and mission declarations,” the organization added.
The campaign seems to have been working with Steam, who earlier this month said it would ban games that “can violate the rules and standards led by Steam’s payment processors and related map networks and banks, or internet network providers.”
Similarly, ITCH.IO said: “To make sure we can continue to operate and provide a marketplace for all developers, we must prioritize our relationship with our payment partners and take immediate steps towards compliance.”
It also said “No Mercy” had been “temporarily available on itching.
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The company said it is now performing a “comprehensive revision” to ensure that games available in the market meet “the requirements for our payment processors”, with adult content that remains Deindexed until the audit is completed. Following the audit, itching.io said NSFW players will be required to confirm that their content is allowed in accordance with the policies of their payment processors attached to their account.
On social media, users noticed itching.
This is far from the first time that payment companies appear to have pushed online platforms over adult content – for example, Gumroad pointed out last year’s restrictions from payment processors as the implemented stricter rules on NSFW art, and only fans also accused “bank partners and payment providers” when it banned explicit content (a decision as it subsequently revered).
A petition for change.org with more than 137,000 verified signatures criticizes Mastercard and Visa for their role in these types of decisions. The petition requires, among other things, that the payment companies “stop censoring legal fictitious content that complies with the law and platform standards” and “rejects the influence of activist groups that promote moral panic or incorrect representation as harm.”