Itch.io is the latest market to take strict measures against adult games

Independent video game market Itch.io She announced this week that she had “Deindexed” adults and insecure games for workRemove it from the pages of browsing it and searching.

The company said that this step was in response to a group screaming campaign (a group of advocacy Previously criticized Video games, rap music and lingerie ads) targets both Itch.io And steam to sell “no mercy”, which is a game It depicts rape and incest.

in Open message Addressed to PayPal, MasterCard, VISA executives and other payment processors, Collection Shout said the games “support the abuse of men and torture for women and girls in the face of efforts against violence against women.”

The Foundation added: “We do not see how to facilitate payment transactions and extract financial benefit from these violent and immoral games, in line with your company’s values and task data.”

The campaign seems to have succeeded, with Steam saying earlier this month Gaming “It may violate the rules and standards determined by Steam payment processors, card networks, related banks, or Internet providers.”

Similarly, Itch.io He said: “To ensure that we can continue to work and provide a market for all developers, we must give priority to our relationship with our payment partners and take immediate steps towards compliance.”

He also said that “no mercy” was “temporarily available on ITCH.IO before it was banned in April”, and that “the situation has evolved quickly”, forcing the company to “act urgently to protect the infrastructure for the basic payment of the platform, without providing an advanced notice to the creators.

The company said it is now “a comprehensive scrutiny” to ensure that the games available in the market meet “the requirements of our payment processors”, while the remaining adult content remains until the audit is complete. After checking, Itch.io The aforementioned NSFW are required to confirm that their content is permitted under their payment policies associated with their account.

On social media, users criticize Itch.ioThe decision to do so indicated Current conditions He announced that the violations of the content of adults are “permanent without any opportunity to appeal” and that any money in a violating account “will not be qualified to pay” – or as one developer Put it“If the rules are violated, we take all your money. Not only the money from this work, all your money from everything you made at all.”

This is far from the first time that payment companies seemed to have pressed online platforms on adults content – for example, Gumroad pointed last year to the restrictions of payment processors when that is. Implementing tougher rules About NSFW, and only blames “banking partners and payment providers” when it is An explicit content prohibited (resolution Reverse after that).

A Change.org Seam With more than 137,000 verified signatures criticizing MasterCard and Visa for their role in these types of decisions. Among other things, the petition demands that “payment companies stop monitoring the legal fictional content that corresponds to the standards of law and platform” and “refusing to influence active groups that enhance moral or imaginative panic as harm.”