Now we are at the "just lie" stage.
"We were recently notified that certain games on Steam may violate the rules and standards set forth by our payment processors and their related card networks and banks."
"Recently, we came under scrutiny from our payment processors regarding the nature of some content hosted on itch.io."
It is extremely clear from these official statements that the payment processors actively reached out to these platforms and made at the very least an implication that they could lose access to payments.
Why would anyone believe MasterCard over Steam and Itch?
Remember, it’s never just about games. These same companies censored journalism and accountability when they blocked donations to Wikileaks like 15-20 years ago. They’re too powerful and cannot be trusted. Call and write to your legislators every day to get payment processors regulated and fined.
Do you think FedNow will allow payments to Steam and Itch.io for porno video games?
> At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.
This part is doing all the work. They aren't going to spell it out for you. But you can read this great ACLU filing that explains, in detail, what they are intentionally glossing over when they say "appropriate controls". https://www.aclu.org/documents/federal-trade-commission-comp... (Federal Trade Commission Complaint - MasterCard, Inc.
Document Date: August 30, 2023)
And even if it is in certain jurisdictions, that is an issue for the legal system to work out, not the payment processor.
This response is more BS than a cattle rancher deals with in a year.
The average income is significantly north of a quarter million per household.
So it explains why these people are out of touch to such a degree that they can insist something being possibly illegal in <random country> means a global ban is warranted.
"We don't ban legal content! Oh no, we just follow the law."
>>Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations. Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.
- Activism group lobbies banks/card companies/payment processors to ban content
- itch.io takes immediate action to prevent them from losing access to payment processing
- Mass outrage, lots of confusion, various conflicting claims such as “I've had games vanish from my account”
- The developers of “Mouthwashing”, in particular, complain about having had their game delisted on itch.io
- itch.io responds saying “Mouthwashing” was delisted a long time ago, because their “Download” button was a link to their Steam page. Also says they're looking into resolving things with Paypal and Stripe (their payment processors)
- itch.io responds again saying free NSFW content will be reindexed, and that hopefully soon paid NSFW content will be reindexed and made available soon once talks with payment processors resolve issues
- Now, Mastercard says none of this is their fault, they've had the same policies as always, e.g. anything's fine as long as it's not illegal
It's hard to figure out what's actually going on here. Is it Stripe and Paypal that are preventing itch.io to resume operations as normal, because they think the card companies like Mastercard are going to impose new restrictions as a result of activist lobbying? Or what?
Regardless, the beating itch.io has been taking on social media has been incredibly disheartening to see. It's obvious that they don't want to have to deal with this problem any more than anyone else, and that it's been thrust upon them—yet, there's been a lot of incredibly histrionic overreaction from users on social media, directed at itch.io, for their defensive actions.
But it's hard to say. Mastercard is now saying that they never said or did anything. So where did the outrage come from? Someone must have done something.
I realize this is all nonsense, but I'm curious whether there's any sort of plausible deniability whatsoever they can point to (so that in turn can be addressed), or if it's just complete absolute nonsense.
shmerl•10h ago