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Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

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Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#11

Post by mostlysimilar »

progbits wrote: post #9
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CSAM means material of actual kids, meaning actual victims from the real world have been harmed/abused. Weird video games on the porn side, are only fictional 3D models made of pixels, so no humans are being harmed. When I used to kill cops in GTA Vice City as a kid, 20 years ago, I wasn't killing actual cops(duh!). Has society lost their collective marbles since then, and can't differentiate what's a real crime and…

I think OP is saying someone should make a platform that hasn't lost marbles and would allow this content, but you would still want to block CSAM and that is not easy to do.

Itch hasn't lost its marbles, they're forced to remove this content by payment processors. They're critical infrastructure, they shouldn't be allowed to arbitrate on behalf of an entire society. We need laws to require them to carry payments for any legal transaction. Paying for porn games is legal.

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#12

Post by gotoeleven »

righthand wrote: post #2

More caving to the ultra-religious pearl grippers who just have nothing better to do than tell others how to live. All the hate speech trash and troll talk on the Steam forums is fine though. All the war games are fine though. Make sure people can validate genocide and what not but not see titties.

[flagged]

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#13

Post by badsectoracula »

righthand wrote: post #6
magicmicah85 wrote: post #3

This is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to create a censorship-resistant platform, though, I don't know how you do it profitably when CSAM and other potentially criminal content needs to be reviewed.

The major problem is the payment processors though. Unless you defeat that duopoly or only accept cash how do you stop this exact situation? There are the FedNow tokens and ACH which could help but it still requires quite a bit of cost to begin even that route. My customers are going to want to use their cards to pay too.

Yeah and it isn't just you accepting cash. Let's say you decide to go with cash (or, more realistically, manual bank transfers) and even get some host like 1984 that'd go to the court for you, but what stops Visa/MC to go directly at your host and tell them to either drop your site or they'll drop them?

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#14

Post by magicmicah85 »

righthand wrote: post #6
magicmicah85 wrote: post #3

This is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to create a censorship-resistant platform, though, I don't know how you do it profitably when CSAM and other potentially criminal content needs to be reviewed.

The major problem is the payment processors though. Unless you defeat that duopoly or only accept cash how do you stop this exact situation? There are the FedNow tokens and ACH which could help but it still requires quite a bit of cost to begin even that route. My customers are going to want to use their cards to pay too.

Cryptocurrency is the only way I see this working.

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#15

Post by progbits »

mostlysimilar wrote: post #11
progbits wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think OP is saying someone should make a platform that hasn't lost marbles and would allow this content, but you would still want to block CSAM and that is not easy to do.

Itch hasn't lost its marbles, they're forced to remove this content by payment processors. They're critical infrastructure, they shouldn't be allowed to arbitrate on behalf of an entire society. We need laws to require them to carry payments for any legal transaction. Paying for porn games is legal.

Nobody said anything about itch, this is about the whole payment system. You are agreeing with both of us but writing it as argument.

But the lack of reading comprehension on this site is making me lose my marbles.

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#16

Post by Night_Thastus »

magicmicah85 wrote: post #14
righthand wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major problem is the payment processors though. Unless you defeat that duopoly or only accept cash how do you stop this exact situation? There are the FedNow tokens and ACH which could help but it still requires quite a bit of cost to begin even that route. My customers are going to want to use their cards to pay too.

Cryptocurrency is the only way I see this working.

Adding a broken, inefficient system to a problem just makes 2 problems.

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#17

Post by mwill »

magicmicah85 wrote: post #3

This is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to create a censorship-resistant platform, though, I don't know how you do it profitably when CSAM and other potentially criminal content needs to be reviewed.

These conservative groups aren't pressuring Steam and Itch directly, they're targeting payment processors.

I don't think it's realistically viable to compete with Steam (or Itch) without access to Mastercard and Visa.

(For anyone thinking crypto: we have a different idea of what it means to be either "realistically viable" or to "compete with Steam")

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#19

Post by ChrisArchitect »

[dupe] Discussions:

Itch.io: Update on NSFW Content

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44667667

Australian anti-porn group claims responsibility for Steams new censorship rules

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44636369

Against the censorship of adult content by payment processors

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44679406

Re: Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope

#20

Post by righthand »

magicmicah85 wrote: post #14
righthand wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major problem is the payment processors though. Unless you defeat that duopoly or only accept cash how do you stop this exact situation? There are the FedNow tokens and ACH which could help but it still requires quite a bit of cost to begin even that route. My customers are going to want to use their cards to pay too.

Cryptocurrency is the only way I see this working.

Cryptocurrency is a nice idea but there are and have always been too many gas fees for anyone to sensibly use it. I want to buy something not support everyone that get their hands in my transaction chain.

The US government can break up the duopoly and open up payments processing federally. That’s worth the investment than that pipe dream of a global, frictionless cryptocurrency.

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