Just a little over a week after Steam updated its guidelines to pro♊hibit content that "may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam's payment processors and related card networks," specifically adult-only content, and days after itch.io shared that it, too, had removed games thaꦏt would put it in direct conflict with its payment processors, 🌸gamers around the world are banding together tꦐo try and change the circumstances.
Itch Has Now Been Censored By Payment Processors Too – We're Slipping Down The Censorship Slope
Payment proce﷽ssors shouldn't be the ones deciding wꦡhat art is.
, players are working directly to contact Visa, a payment processor that has put the company in such a predicament in the first place. By using Visa's dedicated contact form and a carefully worded message, they are hoping that things will ch💛ange soon.
Dear Visa Customer Service Team,
I am concerned customer about Visa’s recent efforts to censor adult content on prominent online game retailers, specifically the platforms Steam and Itch.io. As a long-time Visa customer, I see this as a massive overreach into controlling what entirely legal actions/purchases customers are allowed to put their money towards. Visa has no right to dictate my or other consumers' behavior or to pressure free markets to comply with vague, morally-grounded rules enforced by payment processing providers. Unless thes♈e Draconian impositions are not reversed, I will have no choice but to stop dealing with Visa and instead swap to competing companies not directly involved in censorship efforts, namely Discover and American🦩Express.
For its part, Visa has already begun responding to gamers, though its🌃 response is nowhere near satisfactory, according to those involved in the efforts.
Visa Says It's "Committed To Protecting Legal Commerce"
In a response shared by one gamer, Visa noted it "explicitly" prohibits illegal activity, while also sharing a commitment to "protecting legal commerꦆce." More specifically, the payment company noted that, "If a transaction is legal, our policy is to process the transaction. We do not make moral judgments on legal purchases made by consumers."
"That is, in fact, an actual legitimate lie," .
Given the rapidly developing circumstances surrounding this new issue, only time will tell as to what the resolution is. At the very least, those most impacted are doing their best t🔯o help reverse course.
Is The Fighting Game Gold😼en Age Over? EVO 2025 Entrant Numb൩ers Tell A Story
The signi🌊ficant drop in EVO 2025 entrant numbers is due to potential factors like politics, industry struggles, and maybe even the passage of time.
