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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

#411

Post by Cthulhu_ »

everdrive wrote: post #211
fossgeller wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well maybe they are bothered by its sexist content. People all are about free speech when it comes to censorship in media, but not that many talk about how objectification of women is still very common in it. I’m sure that there are dating sims that are just fine, but let’s be honest here, these platforms are filled with much weirder stuff . Some of them even enter the morally grey areas imo.

"Objectification" is just a clinical and negative way to describe normal male sexuality. ie, that physically beautiful women are sexually attractive.

I mean your last point is fine, the problem is when the Overton window of what "normal male sexuality" is shifts towards violating other people's boundaries, or diminishing them as people beyond how it affects men's arousal.

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

#412

Post by Levitz »

fossgeller wrote: post #145
can16358p wrote: post #105

What is wrong with these people who try to block certain content? Don't like porn? Don't buy it. Simple as that. No one, including governments or payment processors, should be in the position to decide whether a platform can sell something or not. I wish there was a payment processor who was brave enough to say a big fucking NO to censorship.

Well maybe they are bothered by its sexist content. People all are about free speech when it comes to censorship in media, but not that many talk about how objectification of women is still very common in it. I’m sure that there are dating sims that are just fine, but let’s be honest here, these platforms are filled with much weirder stuff . Some of them even enter the morally grey areas imo.

Where would books like Twilight or 50 shades of grey rank on this "weirdness" scale? Sexism? Those two books had orders of magnitude more of an impact on society, where is the outrage?

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

#413

Post by MSFT_Edging »

anonym29 wrote: post #354
pyuser583 wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No this isn't just American. Most of the world is very anti-porn. The BRICS countries mostly outlaw porn. Even Nordic countries, which are very socially liberal, discourage it (at least production). There's a tendency for social liberals to see their view as the only legitimate one. Sometimes they are right. But this is an area where there is lots of international push back from undeveloped, developing, and even many…

Several of the BRICS (& other "global south" / non-neoliberal / non-western) countries also imprison journalists and nonviolent political opposition groups, and some even have the death penalty for minor cannabis possession. "Everyone else does things this way" isn't a legitimate justification.

Not to whatabout but the US isn't free from punishing journalists.

See the Steven Donziger[1] case. It was just done more Americanly. Private corporation threw their full weight at a lawyer defending an indigenous population who had their water supply poisoned. Chevron hired a private prosecutor who had him locked up on house arrest for years.

Similar to this porn case, the censorship and suppression is coming from market interests rather than government, but they're nearly equally untouchable and even more difficult to hold accountable. You can't vote out the leadership of mastercard or chevron.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Donziger

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

#414

Post by Cthulhu_ »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #281
m463 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

any sex questions led to non answers. the point was that content is blocked almost by default nowadays

But the LLM gave you a detailed answer on another sex question. I'm a bit confused why that example was used.

Not entirely; the one question was sex and interpersonal relationships, the other was medical / scientific.

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

#415

Post by johnnyanmac »

Saline9515 wrote: post #252
johnnyanmac wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>whether or not it's moral and appropriate to advocate for and work towards its abolition in what you see as the best interest of everyone? That lines creates justification for anything and even everyone to be banned, sadly. >Is "Don't like X? Don't buy it" as far as we should go with... AI-produced child porn? My line is "is there a victim harmed with the action". Shooting a gun? Yes, someone is often harmed and kil…

The problem with simulated CSAM is that there is a risk that the viewer develops a fetish for such repulsive practices. It has then destructive consequences for the viewer and, should he try to perform it, his victims. Either way, I don't see the harm of forbidding it. The web doesn't lack regular pornography alternatives, free or paid.

This is the same "violence in video games" argument, no? I'm open to reading studies on the issue, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that simulated CSAM "converts" people who otherwise is not attracted to children.

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

#416

Post by Cthulhu_ »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #204
m463 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was llama-7b

that was uncensored

What is meant by uncensored though? Did it have for example the complete unfiltered human knowledge, or was its dataset filtered to exclude e.g. 4chan?

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

#417

Post by rustystump »

SXX wrote: post #336
rustystump wrote: post #330

I have always found it odd that whenever pornography comes up the degree to which people defend it in all forms. It is uncomfortably telling but also completely misses why this is happening. Itch.io is heavily saturated with anime porn games along with steam to the point I find both difficult to navigate even with nsfw filters turned on. Turning those filters off and it is pretty egregious the volume of it all let al…

> How can i see cyberpunk but not hentai? There are filter by tags too. Works pretty well to filter out like all anime or hentai games.

I like my game platforms how I like my streaming platforms. One for explicitly porn, and another for explicitly not porn. GoT on netflix while spicy is not porn. The issue is mixing porn with not porn. I shouldnt have to go click a bunch of special porn tags to not see that shit on the home page. I like anime games but cant seem to keep them without the hentai. Poor experience.

The fact the default is porn games in your home page IS the issue. It gives all this ammunition for xyz group to do whatever.

The politics of payment processors being the bad guys is nonsense. They have to bow down to too many governments to play ball so will always take the politically expedient option. Almost all bitcoin validators bowed down to us sanctions banning wallet addresses for example. That cat has been out of the bag for years.

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

#418

Post by phendrenad2 »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #71

The bitter truth is that the tech world's libertarian allergy to collective action is exactly why stuff like this keeps happening. Predictably, we get another round of "free speech on the internet is sacred!" polemics. Hate to break it to HN, but Visa and MasterCard aren't reading Hacker News, and they don't care about constitutional takes or appeals to values or consistency. Legal arguments won't do squat here. Ther…

Protesting only works when the media is on your side. I doubt the media would take your side on this one.

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

#419

Post by [deleted] »

gs17 wrote: post #377
flumpcakes wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my entire point: Valve and Itch do not police their store fronts (Itch actually does, it won't allow any games it thinks are 'hatred' but other content is OK) and now the payment processors think the risk is too great. I think one solution for Valve/Itch to continue with the 'no policing policy' is for governments to step in and say all video games needed classification like films do. I think a few of these v…

Steam's storefront is actually policed somewhat, their rules are simply not the same as the ones you want them to have. > governments to step in and say all video games needed classification like films do. Valve and (I believe) Itch are both US companies. In the US, films are not required to get a rating anymore.

[deleted]

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

#420

Post by onlyfansfakes »

pyuser583 wrote: post #318

I read from a fairly reputable source that money laundering is a huge problem in online sex industry. Which makes sense - you have buyers and sellers who insist on anonymity, services that leave no trace once rendered, buyers and sellers lying to family and friends about what they're doing, etc. There's often no "normal" amount of consumption, for example, some sellers receive million dollar tips. Money laundering is…

>One of the reasons OF is doing well is because they insist on following know your customer laws

You’d think so, but nope. Using a throwaway account for obvious reasons.

I ended up subscribing to someone who’s catfishing. All their pics on OnlyFans and other socials were just stolen from random Instagram models. I reported it to OF, but got no response.

Whatever verification system OF has, it’s bypassable. It doesn’t matter much when it’s just regular subscribers - nobody really cares about consumer rights in the adult content space. That’s why so many creators can get away with pretending they’re the ones replying to messages. But I’m betting there’s going to be a CSEM scandal linked to this in the next few years.

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