Steam rules updated to prohibit content that violates rules set forth by payment processors and banks

I wonder if Steam could just allow purchases of certain games to be made with wallet funds which would circumvent the problem all together.
Not sure if that would have helped, according to AI it's like this: "when you buy a game on Steam with a credit card, your credit card company typically only sees that you made a purchase from Steam, not the specific game you bought. The transaction will usually appear on your statement as something like "Steam Purchase" or "Valve Corp," along with the amount charged."
 
PCMR, kiss the ring.

Actually though, I don't like the idea of them having control over this because this is usually how these things work. They come after weird loli creepy mentally ill incest games, then they have some kind of activist take it and run with it. Games like Postal will eventually be pulled. And since we own digital, we don't own anything on PC anymore.
 
Not sure if that would have helped, according to AI it's like this: "when you buy a game on Steam with a credit card, your credit card company typically only sees that you made a purchase from Steam, not the specific game you bought. The transaction will usually appear on your statement as something like "Steam Purchase" or "Valve Corp," along with the amount charged."

It would be another buffer and technically you could avoid payment processors all together in some countries as you can exchange cash for Steam wallet cards.
 
So basically we're giving credit card companies unlimited power to control and censor the Internet this is going to end well
And then like always the weirdos come out to defend it or even demand more restrictions because... I don't know, I guess they don't like LARPers? "You must be this much actual sex pest to enjoy artistic freedoms. :pie_frowning: "
 
Last edited:
Card networks operate globally, and some jurisdictions have strict or ambiguous laws around adult content. That includes the following:
  • Depictions of non-consensual acts (even if simulated/fictional)
  • Incest themes
  • Characters appearing underage
  • Extreme violence or fetish material
Even if a game is legal in one country, the financial institution or card processor could be at risk if it's seen as facilitating something possibly illegal or morally dubious elsewhere. Mastercard introduced rules in 2021 requiring more oversight and verification for adult content, partly in response to scandals around sites like Pornhub.

Additionally, financial institutions and card processors are subject to anti-money laundering laws, human trafficking laws, and child exploitation statutes, which can be triggered if adult content isn't strictly controlled.

On top of that, adult content carries a higher risk of fraud and chargebacks, and this translates to a cost for the financial institutions and card processors. Adult content transactions have a higher risk of having stolen cards used for purchases, having users later deny that they made the purchase, and chargebacks/disputes due to embarrassment or deception. High chargeback rates can cause a platform to be flagged as "high risk," which raises processing fees or even leads to termination of service.

The last sentence explains why Valve could elect to remove certain types of content. If pervert games (don't be offended by the truth) are being purchased with fraudulent cards at a higher rate than other games, or if chargebacks are occurring at a higher rate than other games, it is in Valve's best interest to nix these types of games so that their relationship with card processors isn't put at risk. This is also in the best interest of everyone else who isn't buying these pervert games.

TL;DR - This isn't card processors making arbitrary decisions to restrict the content that users are allowed to consume, and Valve isn't engaging in censorship by removing these games. There are legal issues at play that people are not considering, and Valve has to ensure that their relationship with card processors remains solid in order to avoid potential disruptions for their users who aren't dirty, wiener-spanking perverts.
 
TL;DR - This isn't card processors making arbitrary decisions to restrict the content that users are allowed to consume, and Valve isn't engaging in censorship by removing these games. There are legal issues at play that people are not considering, and Valve has to ensure that their relationship with card processors remains solid in order to avoid potential disruptions for their users who aren't dirty, wiener-spanking perverts.

If we knew nothing, then a few of your arguments could apply (yet I seriously doubt that Steam gets hit with chargebacks quite as much, in comparison to other platforms, since it has reasonable refund policies and it's not an adult only website, plus it has relevant features such as hiding games in your library).

However...when you do the research and realize that the payment processors didn't suddenly wake up in the middle of the night, but were intentionally triggered by a mass e-mail campaign organized to turn them against Steam that was recently carried out by a radical feminist organization in Australia, a group that is against pornography in all of its forms (see my previous post above and you can look up their previous activities online too)...then many of those explanations are of limited applicability in this case.

The text below was from just a few days ago and they've since posted even more about it:

When 'Just a Game' Glorifies Real-World Abuse

Collective Shout
Australia

7 jul 2025
It's hard to believe that any reputable corporation would desire to profit from the sale of products featuring the exploitation of women and children.

But we have discovered seven who are quite happy to take a cut from hundreds of r*pe, incest and child-abuse themed games which we've found on popular gaming platforms such as Steam and Itch.io.

Collective Shout ambassador, Kelly Humphries, continues...

"I fully support the Collective Shout campaign because it is time for corporations, credit card companies, and digital platforms to take responsibility. The monetisation of this kind of content is not only morally indefensible, it may also breach legal and classification standards.

We must draw the line, hold those responsible to account, and call out organisations and individuals who enable or profit from the continued normalisation of abuse and exploitation of any person, but particularly women and girls.

What may appear to some as just a game is, for far too many, a lived and devastating reality. I can assure you; it is no game. We must not stand by. We must not allow these harmful practices to continue unchallenged."


It's time to make credit card companies and payment gateways like PayPal, Visa and Mastercard, see that profiting from first player gamified violence against women and children isn't good for their reputation.
Demand these payment pathways cut ties with Steam and Itch-io!! Email them now:
https://www.collectiveshout.org/email-payment-processors

It wasn't "oh no, Steam is facing a lot of chargebacks for adult purchases" (again, very unlikely as a matter of principle), but the result of malicious actors poisoning the well. They rely on the fallacy that something happening in a game means you're somehow in favor of a similar thing taking place in reality. That's not true when fictional characters are killed by the thousands in GTA, and it's also not true in these other games either.

For that matter...



More on that person:

Melinda Tankard Reist (born 23 September 1963) is an Australian writer, speaker, blogger and media commentator. She describes herself as "an advocate for women and girls" and a "pro-life feminist"
Subject: Anti-pornography, anti-prostitution, anti-abortion, feminism, violence against women

 
Last edited:
So what's the solution here? Payment processors decide what we can consume in many other areas. Hell, they were about shut off porn in OnlyFans were it not for the backlash.

Visa and Mastercard have a monopoly and they want to look presentable and avoid controversies hence ruining other people's livelihoods considered beneath them.

I would personally say get a payment processor that specifically has a 'everythings allowed unless illegal' like probiller for porn sites. Idk who or why anybody will set it up tho.
 
Yep. I'm thankful I got to experience the internet when it was the Wild West. Our kids and their kids won't be so lucky.
Tiktok is kind of a wild west of the internet today, probably partly why it's so popular with the youth. You can pretty much find anything despite the rules (creative ppl use loopholes and there are many on it)
 
If you want to know who should be blamed...here, it's presented without comment:





And they already had GTAV in their crosshairs once.. It seems like it worked this time, ffs - since like I mentioned, it wasn't possible in some territories to pay on steam with PayPal for a few days now. And... oh, what's this:


We don't permit PayPal account holders to buy or sell:

Sexually oriented digital goods or content delivered through a digital medium. Examples of digital goods include downloadable pictures or videos and website subscriptions.
Sexually oriented goods or services that involve, or appear to involve, minors.
Services whose purpose is to facilitate meetings for sexually oriented activities.

The first one is VERY worrying, as it's pretty broad.
 
Doesn't mean any of that. This is clearly referencing fringe material. That is a long way from censorship based on political beliefs. Getting a bit carried away here.
I do think you are underestimating this. Fringe material is how the rule is accepted and put in place. After that you lost all the bargaining power and the way things shake up is self censoring driven by multiple interested parties making it even murkier to trace back from a user perspective why and what is happening.

It started with pressure put on payment processors to be responsible for what individuals do with their money (instead of individuals…), of course it started with noble intent, and now payment processors are applying pressures on stores, etc…


There is a much longer history of this problem and it is an older level of control rebranded… effectively some people seem ok or happy to put more and more power in essentially stateless corporations thinking the democratic process can take / control it (and even there obfuscating even more what censorship get effectively applied with more and more indirect levels)…
 
Last edited:
Those anti freedom lobby groups are terrible, leading us directly in some Demolition Man / Equilibrium / 1984 / Brave New World jail.
Anything sexualised, any violance, alcohol and drugs, offensive jokes.... they hate pretty much everything and essentially love dictatorships without realising it.
"The West" was successful because we had and fought for decent freedom, while other regions suffered from repressive mind policing and these dumbasses fight to get us there too. smh
 
It is kinda disheartening to read how many people are still oblivious to the danger and the real aim of these practices.

This is a forum of technology enthusiasts, if people here are not aware of this stuff what's the hope for the general population?
 
So what's the solution here? Payment processors decide what we can consume in many other areas. Hell, they were about shut off porn in OnlyFans were it not for the backlash.

Visa and Mastercard have a monopoly and they want to look presentable and avoid controversies hence ruining other people's livelihoods considered beneath them.

I would personally say get a payment processor that specifically has a 'everythings allowed unless illegal' like probiller for porn sites. Idk who or why anybody will set it up tho.

When you have a monopoly you break it up. Governments should at least but you know. Maybe the solution will be crypto but i doubt it.
 
Why are these fucking banker parasites setting rules for how everything we pay for with our money should operate? Isn't that a cartel that basically functions as a government? Shouldn't that cartel be dealt with?
 
Jonah Hill Ok GIF
 
Card networks operate globally, and some jurisdictions have strict or ambiguous laws around adult content. That includes the following:
  • Depictions of non-consensual acts (even if simulated/fictional)
  • Incest themes
  • Characters appearing underage
  • Extreme violence or fetish material
Even if a game is legal in one country, the financial institution or card processor could be at risk if it's seen as facilitating something possibly illegal or morally dubious elsewhere. Mastercard introduced rules in 2021 requiring more oversight and verification for adult content, partly in response to scandals around sites like Pornhub.

Additionally, financial institutions and card processors are subject to anti-money laundering laws, human trafficking laws, and child exploitation statutes, which can be triggered if adult content isn't strictly controlled.

On top of that, adult content carries a higher risk of fraud and chargebacks, and this translates to a cost for the financial institutions and card processors. Adult content transactions have a higher risk of having stolen cards used for purchases, having users later deny that they made the purchase, and chargebacks/disputes due to embarrassment or deception. High chargeback rates can cause a platform to be flagged as "high risk," which raises processing fees or even leads to termination of service.

The last sentence explains why Valve could elect to remove certain types of content. If pervert games (don't be offended by the truth) are being purchased with fraudulent cards at a higher rate than other games, or if chargebacks are occurring at a higher rate than other games, it is in Valve's best interest to nix these types of games so that their relationship with card processors isn't put at risk. This is also in the best interest of everyone else who isn't buying these pervert games.

TL;DR - This isn't card processors making arbitrary decisions to restrict the content that users are allowed to consume, and Valve isn't engaging in censorship by removing these games. There are legal issues at play that people are not considering, and Valve has to ensure that their relationship with card processors remains solid in order to avoid potential disruptions for their users who aren't dirty, wiener-spanking perverts.
Thank you for the adult explanation to this, not that anyone will notice cause they're be too busy screaming woke, DEI, etc :messenger_unamused:
 
I do think you are underestimating this. Fringe material is how the rule is accepted and put in place. After that you lost all the bargaining power and the way things shake up is self censoring driven by multiple interested parties making it even murkier to trace back from a user perspective why and what is happening.

It started with pressure put on payment processors to be responsible for what individuals do with their money (instead of individuals…), of course it started with noble intent, and now payment processors are applying pressures on stores, etc…


There is a much longer history of this problem and it is an older level of control rebranded… effectively some people seem ok or happy to put more and more power in essentially stateless corporations thinking the democratic process can take / control it (and even there obfuscating even more what censorship get effectively applied with more and more indirect levels)…

Perhaps. Too much slippery slope fallacy in all of this for me, but not really interested in engaging in this further. It is not really a gaming topic.
 
That woman sounds like some reactionary Neoprotestant masquerading as a radfem.


Feminism is a cult, people like her just believe in a different religion that is equally or often even more prude than Christian fundies specifically when it comes to content aimed at men. Content aimed at women like books though can be as rapey and degenerate as they like, in fact the cult promotes that as "empowering"
 
Feminism is a cult, people like her just believe in a different religion that is equally or often even more prude than Christian fundies specifically when it comes to content aimed at men. Content aimed at women like books though can be as rapey and degenerate as they like, in fact the cult promotes that as "empowering"
"Feminism" isn't monolithic. There are multiple various versions of it, some of which are actually adversaries.

What I find it highly curious, is how old, decrepit second-gen feminism, with its censor-happy militant radicalism, its exclusionary prudishness, its lack of (desire to accept) nuance, made a recent comeback.

It's as if some bad-faith background actors have been signal-boosting it for their own purposes...........
 
What I find it highly curious, is how old, decrepit second-gen feminism, with its censor-happy militant radicalism, its exclusionary prudishness, its lack of (desire to accept) nuance, made a recent comeback.
I could probbably answer that but my answer would definitely break the "no politics" rule.
 
"Feminism" isn't monolithic. There are multiple various versions of it, some of which are actually adversaries.

You're kind of right, I should have said cults, not cult. The point is though that every iteration is just as hateful and authoritarian towards men as the next one
 
Hah, gottem. If you look on the "Partners" page of that Collective Shout group, you'll see an absolute shitton of reactionary religious organizations, like the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, The Rite Journey, Bodies Endangered, Compassion In Jesus' Name etc.

They're 100% reactionaries.
 
Anyone that doesn't see that is a fool.


Who is doing that?
Oh I don't know, maybe the posters that have already went down the whole let's blame feminist groups and "anti freedom" groups for this rather than seeing this as big corpos just covering their asses
Scroll up a bit and you'll see what I'm talking about
 
Oh I don't know, maybe the posters that have already went down the whole let's blame feminist groups and "anti freedom" groups for this rather than seeing this as big corpos just covering their asses
Scroll up a bit and you'll see what I'm talking about
So your issue isn't people screaming woke and DEI. It's them calling out a feminist group for doing something they are literally doing. Your "etc" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

Are you a male feminist by chance?
 
You're kind of right, I should have said cults, not cult. The point is though that every iteration is just as hateful and authoritarian towards men as the next one
That's absolutely not true for 3rd wave "slutwalk" feminism. It's why it was fought against so bitterly by those forces who would prefer sowing discord for their own gain.
Antagonism towards men is a characteristic of 2nd wave feminism and its recent signal-boosted degenerate offshoots. Hence why radical Christians have puppeteered this specific form of feminism: its militantism, vehemence, and adversarialism appeals to their goals.
 
Top Bottom