Steve Holt
Member
Hell hath no fury like a gamer scorned.
Mastercard: Clarifying recent headlines on gaming content
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Share holders have a lot more fury.
Gameplay Gods Bless
Member
Source on this image
Gameplay Gods Bless
Member
Certainly not in the US, fiction is fiction there. I know places like Canada do not believe fiction is fiction and do explicitly disallow some types of fictional content
YeulEmeralda
Linux User
Sakura
Member
Not really. For example last year in Indiana there was a case where a guy was charged for having hentai featuring underage characters, but was found not guilty as it is protected by the first amendment (https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/in-court-of-appeals/116613118.html)
I think it depends on how realistic it looks though. Kind of a grey area.
And I am pretty sure stuff like fictional incest would never be a legal issue (in the US at least). After all, the laws on incest are about having sex with your own immediate family member, not on you seeing other (fictional) family members getting it on.
The reason underage stuff gets targetted is because child pornography itself is obviously illegal, so the question is whether fictional versions of that are ok or not (and depends heavily on country). I'm pretty sure Steam already doesn't allow that stuff? Though there could be stuff that is questionable, I dunno.
From my understanding, the reason there is so much "step" stuff in porn games, is because places like Patreon specifically forbid it, not because of legal reasons.
freemandos
Member
I guess they'll sue Collective Shout for defamation. Oh, wait, they won't.
yurinka
Member
It isn't just Mastercard and Visa, Paypal, Stripe and others (including banks) did the same in a coordinated way even if they are supposed to be rivals. And isn't affecting just Steam and Itch.io, but also porn sites, crowdfunding sites and generative AI training websites.
And happened more or less at the same time the UK mandated personal verification with camera to use NSFW websites and the USA released that new law about theorically revenge porn and non-consentual AI deepfakes.
So yes, these payment management companies are part of the issue, but seems that it comes from above them. There's not a lot of people who could mandate Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and others to do so and maybe also force UK and USA goverment to do laws like that.
And isn't a random retarded feminist group like Collective Shout that nobody knew about them before this.
And happened more or less at the same time the UK mandated personal verification with camera to use NSFW websites and the USA released that new law about theorically revenge porn and non-consentual AI deepfakes.
So yes, these payment management companies are part of the issue, but seems that it comes from above them. There's not a lot of people who could mandate Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and others to do so and maybe also force UK and USA goverment to do laws like that.
And isn't a random retarded feminist group like Collective Shout that nobody knew about them before this.
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IFireflyl
Gold Member
Banks/financial institutions are not payment processors. Payment processors are the ones reading and transmitting card data to the banks. When you use your debit card at a Point of Sale (say, Walmart), the payment processor owns that Point of Sale terminal that reads your card and transmits the transaction to the card networks, who then routes the transaction to the financial institution.
Payment Processor Examples
- Fiserv/First Data
- WorldPay
- Adyen
- Stripe
- Chase Paymentech (owned by JPMorgan Chase, which is a bank)
- Square
- Visa
- MasterCard
- American Express
- Discover
Either way, your point about Visa and MasterCard not being singled out was valid.
DaciaJC
Gold Member
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Thats Comical Ali. The Iraqi Information Minister during the gulf war who would constantly appear on TV making completely outlandish claims of Iraqi victories.
IntentionalPun
Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
That guy was charged by the State of Indiana though. The federal statute I linked in another post clearly calls out stuff like hentai with kids being illegal, if he had been charged by the feds he'd likely have been convicted.
And the law that I linked in that other thread very clearly describes that fictional representations of child sex are illegal.
The overall statute is incredibly vague, but the specific ruling around drawn kiddy shit is specific:
Obscenity
It's all a complete legal quagmire. And again, very specifically calls out fictional representations of one specific obscene act, but if someone was called out on another act like depicting incest it could easily be ruled the same way. I think you all underestimate how much legal jeopardy is involved in distributing things that could be deemed "obscene." At any point federal law enforcement could make this a priority and things could change quickly due to the vague obscenity law legal precedent.
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IntentionalPun
Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Because Gabe is a tech libertarian and the laws are vague enough to where Valve could probably get away with just removing the material if any federal law enforcement went after them. There is also a strong belief among tech companies that Section 230 generally protects them from prosecution in general, but again, doesn't mean they couldn't be told directly to remove this stuff and stop spreading it, by the US feds.
My understanding there is absolutely stuff pushing boundaries with depictions of minors on Steam for instance. Hell I imagine a lot of the incest garbage is at fault there too.
I'll say it again I think people underestimate how possible it would be for the feds to go after people or companies for this shit.
The link I posted is from the DOJ, the law of the land from a federal perspective, and what Valve does is distribute this material across the country/world. A company like Mastercard being made keenly aware of this material and it being in the news because of some protest group is absolutely going to legitimately worry about legal trouble.
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Loomy
Thinks Microaggressions are Real
Yeah. This was the quote from the CEO of OnlyFans. From that same interview, it sounded like they were working with new banks.
Visa and MasterCard have never been shy about saying when and why they're fucking companies over sexual content, which is why I find it odd that they're potentially lying here.
Gameplay Gods Bless
Member
Based thanks
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
WHOA!
Aenima
Member
I gotta love when these corpos make decisions to not damage they brand and in the process end damaging they brand 10x more. Fucking retards. Thats why you get for bending the knee to a group of men hatting karens.
StreetsofBeige
Member
Signed a few days ago.
This should help fix those Steam payment processor issues??? Who knows.
nichegamer.com
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 7 which could have an impact on the ongoing censorship implemented by payment processors.
The executive order titled: "Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans" addresses the ability of payment processors to punish individuals for "constitutionally or statutorily protected beliefs, affiliations, or political views". Additionally, the bill calls for an end to clauses regarding "reputation risk" on the part of the payment processors. Payment processors like Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and PayPal regularly claim that objectionable speech represents a "reputation risk" and attempts to financially disenfranchise content creators.
Within 180 days of the date of this order, each appropriate Federal banking regulator shall, to the greatest extent permitted by law, remove the use of reputation risk or equivalent concepts that could result in politicized or unlawful debanking, as well as any other considerations that could be used to engage in such debanking, from their guidance documents, manuals, and other materials (other than existing regulations or other materials requiring notice-and-comment rulemaking) used to regulate or examine financial institutions over which they have jurisdiction. The removal of such concepts shall be made clear by each appropriate Federal banking regulator through formal guidance to their examiners. The Federal banking regulators shall also consider rescinding or amending existing regulations, consistent with applicable law, to eliminate or amend any regulations that could result in politicized or unlawful debanking and to ensure that any regulated firm's or individual's reputation is considered for regulatory, supervisory, banking, or enforcement purposes solely to the extent necessary to reach a reasonable and apolitical risk-based assessment.
Early in the executive order, Trump gives examples of surveillance targeting potentially conservative citizens as the reason for his intervention. So it seems that the blow to adult content censorship may just be incidental.
For those who don't know, payment processors have become de facto censors of online platforms. Sites such as Pixiv, Patreon, Fansly, and more have been compelled to change their moderation practices under the threat that payment processors may scuttle their ability to do business. Most recently Steam and Itch.io were forced to make changes, directly naming Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe as the source of the censorship.
There's an active Change.org petition to draw attention to the issue which you can check out here.
This should help fix those Steam payment processor issues??? Who knows.
Trump signs executive order to contest payment processor censorship
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 7 which could have an impact on the ongoing censorship implemented by payment processors. The executive order titled…
nichegamer.com
Trump signs executive order to contest payment processor censorship
by Brandon Lyttle on August 8, 2025 at 7:24 PM, EDTUnited States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 7 which could have an impact on the ongoing censorship implemented by payment processors.
The executive order titled: "Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans" addresses the ability of payment processors to punish individuals for "constitutionally or statutorily protected beliefs, affiliations, or political views". Additionally, the bill calls for an end to clauses regarding "reputation risk" on the part of the payment processors. Payment processors like Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and PayPal regularly claim that objectionable speech represents a "reputation risk" and attempts to financially disenfranchise content creators.
Within 180 days of the date of this order, each appropriate Federal banking regulator shall, to the greatest extent permitted by law, remove the use of reputation risk or equivalent concepts that could result in politicized or unlawful debanking, as well as any other considerations that could be used to engage in such debanking, from their guidance documents, manuals, and other materials (other than existing regulations or other materials requiring notice-and-comment rulemaking) used to regulate or examine financial institutions over which they have jurisdiction. The removal of such concepts shall be made clear by each appropriate Federal banking regulator through formal guidance to their examiners. The Federal banking regulators shall also consider rescinding or amending existing regulations, consistent with applicable law, to eliminate or amend any regulations that could result in politicized or unlawful debanking and to ensure that any regulated firm's or individual's reputation is considered for regulatory, supervisory, banking, or enforcement purposes solely to the extent necessary to reach a reasonable and apolitical risk-based assessment.
Early in the executive order, Trump gives examples of surveillance targeting potentially conservative citizens as the reason for his intervention. So it seems that the blow to adult content censorship may just be incidental.
For those who don't know, payment processors have become de facto censors of online platforms. Sites such as Pixiv, Patreon, Fansly, and more have been compelled to change their moderation practices under the threat that payment processors may scuttle their ability to do business. Most recently Steam and Itch.io were forced to make changes, directly naming Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe as the source of the censorship.
There's an active Change.org petition to draw attention to the issue which you can check out here.
Reaseru
Member
Signed a few days ago.
This should help fix those Steam payment processor issues??? Who knows.
Trump signs executive order to contest payment processor censorship
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 7 which could have an impact on the ongoing censorship implemented by payment processors. The executive order titled…
Trump signs executive order to contest payment processor censorship
by Brandon Lyttle on August 8, 2025 at 7:24 PM, EDT
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 7 which could have an impact on the ongoing censorship implemented by payment processors.
The executive order titled: "Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans" addresses the ability of payment processors to punish individuals for "constitutionally or statutorily protected beliefs, affiliations, or political views". Additionally, the bill calls for an end to clauses regarding "reputation risk" on the part of the payment processors. Payment processors like Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and PayPal regularly claim that objectionable speech represents a "reputation risk" and attempts to financially disenfranchise content creators.
Within 180 days of the date of this order, each appropriate Federal banking regulator shall, to the greatest extent permitted by law, remove the use of reputation risk or equivalent concepts that could result in politicized or unlawful debanking, as well as any other considerations that could be used to engage in such debanking, from their guidance documents, manuals, and other materials (other than existing regulations or other materials requiring notice-and-comment rulemaking) used to regulate or examine financial institutions over which they have jurisdiction. The removal of such concepts shall be made clear by each appropriate Federal banking regulator through formal guidance to their examiners. The Federal banking regulators shall also consider rescinding or amending existing regulations, consistent with applicable law, to eliminate or amend any regulations that could result in politicized or unlawful debanking and to ensure that any regulated firm's or individual's reputation is considered for regulatory, supervisory, banking, or enforcement purposes solely to the extent necessary to reach a reasonable and apolitical risk-based assessment.
Early in the executive order, Trump gives examples of surveillance targeting potentially conservative citizens as the reason for his intervention. So it seems that the blow to adult content censorship may just be incidental.
For those who don't know, payment processors have become de facto censors of online platforms. Sites such as Pixiv, Patreon, Fansly, and more have been compelled to change their moderation practices under the threat that payment processors may scuttle their ability to do business. Most recently Steam and Itch.io were forced to make changes, directly naming Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe as the source of the censorship.
There's an active Change.org petition to draw attention to the issue which you can check out here.
Great news! What Visa and Mastercard are doing is clearly abuse of power.
They are not the system regulators.
They are only intermediaries for money transaction, and they are not to decide where the consumers money should go...
Probably one of the best decisions from the Trump's Administration.
IAmAnAgnostic
Member
I genuinely don't see anything coming out of this, but I'd love to be proven wrong.Signed a few days ago.
This should help fix those Steam payment processor issues??? Who knows.
Trump signs executive order to contest payment processor censorship
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 7 which could have an impact on the ongoing censorship implemented by payment processors. The executive order titled…
Trump signs executive order to contest payment processor censorship
by Brandon Lyttle on August 8, 2025 at 7:24 PM, EDT
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 7 which could have an impact on the ongoing censorship implemented by payment processors.
The executive order titled: "Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans" addresses the ability of payment processors to punish individuals for "constitutionally or statutorily protected beliefs, affiliations, or political views". Additionally, the bill calls for an end to clauses regarding "reputation risk" on the part of the payment processors. Payment processors like Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and PayPal regularly claim that objectionable speech represents a "reputation risk" and attempts to financially disenfranchise content creators.
Within 180 days of the date of this order, each appropriate Federal banking regulator shall, to the greatest extent permitted by law, remove the use of reputation risk or equivalent concepts that could result in politicized or unlawful debanking, as well as any other considerations that could be used to engage in such debanking, from their guidance documents, manuals, and other materials (other than existing regulations or other materials requiring notice-and-comment rulemaking) used to regulate or examine financial institutions over which they have jurisdiction. The removal of such concepts shall be made clear by each appropriate Federal banking regulator through formal guidance to their examiners. The Federal banking regulators shall also consider rescinding or amending existing regulations, consistent with applicable law, to eliminate or amend any regulations that could result in politicized or unlawful debanking and to ensure that any regulated firm's or individual's reputation is considered for regulatory, supervisory, banking, or enforcement purposes solely to the extent necessary to reach a reasonable and apolitical risk-based assessment.
Early in the executive order, Trump gives examples of surveillance targeting potentially conservative citizens as the reason for his intervention. So it seems that the blow to adult content censorship may just be incidental.
For those who don't know, payment processors have become de facto censors of online platforms. Sites such as Pixiv, Patreon, Fansly, and more have been compelled to change their moderation practices under the threat that payment processors may scuttle their ability to do business. Most recently Steam and Itch.io were forced to make changes, directly naming Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe as the source of the censorship.
There's an active Change.org petition to draw attention to the issue which you can check out here.
Besides, the Repbulicans are not anti content control, most R states have compelled a need to provide ID to view content they deem offensive, just like the EU and UK are doing elsewhere at the same time.
So it'd be a welcome, but unlikely reversal if any content censorship is now removed. But what about the EO? Will anyone enforce it is the question. Will adult games return to Steam, or other sites remove censorship similarly? I don't think so, unfortunately.
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