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Itch.io 'deindexes' all NSFW games, blames same anti-porn group that campaigned against Steam
(www.eurogamer.net)
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
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I don't disagree with you, but you've put some thought into this so maybe you can help us understand your logic and rationale more.
What's profitable about losing sales of adult games?
Also, what leverage do these groups have over banks and payment processors? If you have leverage over Visa and MasterCard, some of the most profitable companies in the world, I could imagine doing way more nefarious things than this. I just don't get it. Some random group in Australia has leverage over Visa and MasterCard - American companies - is that what we're saying here?
I think you might have too much faith in government. Facebook and YouTube shouldn't be hyper-polarizing brainwashing machines either, but here we are 20 years later and governments have done jack shit to address that. If anything, we're going the wrong direction - Governments are seeing that and the TikTok model as tools they can have at their disposal to suppress dissent. But ironically, I think YouTube and many other platforms quietly accept that if we want to live in a somewhat harmonious society, we can't leave it to the government to make all the rules. (eg. YouTube banning vaccine misinformation and disinformation during a public health emergency.)
On a tangent here, maybe the only potential upside from this situation with Steam is that horrifically misogynistic waifu simulators aren't going to be 1 click away from the new Call of Duty. Seriously, Steam is just full of super gross anime shit that kids shouldn't see, but the main audience of the platform is kids. The way Steam puts that content beside everything else is really gross and they really should get called out for that.
From Visa/MC's PoV the situation looks like this:
Visa/MC likely determined #2 to be more than #1. In other words it's more profitable to do #1 instead.
It's mostly their ability to cause brand damage (reasons people avoid your brand because they see it negatively - like #2).
Visa and MC know that, when it comes to sex, people become really irrational. They take insane troll logic seriously, even if they wouldn't otherwise; and those religious groups like Collective Shout are really good at weaponising that irrationality. The way those alt right groups work is that you don't even need to know about the group to repeat their talking points, and spread support to those talking points.
I don't. I'm picking the lesser of two evils here: a government is less worse than those megacorporations.
They didn't ban vaccine misinformation "because it's misinformation" or "because society would be better without it" (even if both things are true). Truth and morality doesn't matter for those platforms; what matters is brand damage.
Super insightful, thanks. Didn't think about any of that.