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Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

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Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#511

Post by zdragnar »

mullingitover wrote: post #505
nso wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US barely has any genuinely left-wing politicians (Bernie Sanders, AOC, DSA). There are no one who realistically could be called far left in any significant position of governing power.

Even these are not far left, they're just basic liberal left. Which groups or media that are commonly labeled 'far left' that are calling for nationalizing all land. Or eliminating all inheritances. Or nationalizing all communications and transportation industries. Or nationalizing the Federal Reserve (that one's really gone horseshoe theory, and is a republican plan now). The only thing 'far left' people want to nat…

The meaning of words can change over time and across space.

The meaning of left and right in US politics encompasses more topics than the matter of who may legally own things.

Pretending that those referred to as left and right are all the same because the only true scottsman is Karl Marx is silly.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#512

Post by micromacrofoot »

pembrook wrote: post #488
micromacrofoot wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I worked in Silicon Valley in the 2010s, I'm not "buying" anything. I'm speaking from lived experience from sitting in actual meetings with these people. Also, it appears I made a massive mistake trying to support a centrist "both far left and far right are bad" comment from OP, as this is now a flame war. We're kinda proving my point.

[flagged]

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#513

Post by dang »

Related. Others?

Clarifying recent headlines on gaming content - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44760843 - Aug 2025 (24 comments)

Visa and Mastercard are getting overwhelmed by gamer fury over censorship - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44713414 - July 2025 (586 comments)

Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44685011 - July 2025 (890 comments)

Against the censorship of adult content by payment processors - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44679406 - July 2025 (250 comments)

Games: No sex, please. we're credit card companies - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44675697 - July 2025 (52 comments)

Itch.io: Update on NSFW Content - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44667667 - July 2025 (323 comments)

Australian anti-porn group claims responsibility for Steams new censorship rules - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44636369 - July 2025 (162 comments)

Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44606184 - July 2025 (905 comments)

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#514

Post by shagie »

altairprime wrote: post #509
shagie wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mastercard and Visa have rather corse information about the transactions. They've got the credit card number, the merchant name, the time, and the total amount of the transaction. They do not have line item level filtering of a transaction. Remember those old carbon paper credit card thingies? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_imprinter - that's all that's needed and all they get. Similarly, the credit card t…

Mastercard can deny all transactions from Australia-billed cards to one merchant if they wish to. They are absolutely wired up for “Area of Use” internally and have this data available to their transaction approval processes. That they chose not to use it, instead pressuring merchants to remove content disliked by an Australian puritanical fringe group, is the corporate laziness I describe. Why respond with their own…

Mastercard does not have that information. Mastercard doesn't do the billing. The bank does the billing.

Mastercard does not know the location where a given card holder is (or for that matter, any demographic information about the card holder). They know where the merchant is, but that's less useful for digital goods.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#515

Post by rs186 »

reginald78 wrote: post #93
rs186 wrote: post #64

Dumb question: what if Steam only takes cash or crypto payment for these games, and leave them on the market? Cash is loaded from debit card and can be used for buying any games, while crypto apparently always works for everything. Would they still be on the hook?

IIRC the rule Mastercard cited was so vague that trying to workaround it almost seemed potentially pointless. It was basically a blanket "we think it makes MasterCard look bad so we end our relationship". Anyway, debit cards are still Visa/mastercard so using them as cash has the same problem. I was thinking they could just use Steam gift cards but since those are often themselves purchased in stores or with credit c…

What about just using checking account numbers like with your utility bills?

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#516

Post by stuaxo »

zdragnar wrote: post #511
mullingitover wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even these are not far left, they're just basic liberal left. Which groups or media that are commonly labeled 'far left' that are calling for nationalizing all land. Or eliminating all inheritances. Or nationalizing all communications and transportation industries. Or nationalizing the Federal Reserve (that one's really gone horseshoe theory, and is a republican plan now). The only thing 'far left' people want to nat…

The meaning of words can change over time and across space. The meaning of left and right in US politics encompasses more topics than the matter of who may legally own things. Pretending that those referred to as left and right are all the same because the only true scottsman is Karl Marx is silly.

There's a whole bunch of socialism to the right of *!=) Marx and the left of classic liberalism.

Words have meaning, trying to characterise "far left" as some sort of US caricature of Blue haired liberal types is less than useful and only serves right wing outlets.

There is very little left wing discourse in the US.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#517

Post by anabab »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #241
cedws wrote: post #50

I'm glad the Mastercard-Visa duopoly is finally getting some attention, these companies shouldn't be allowed to exercise the financial control they do. Payment infrastructure is not a free market - you can't just choose to pay via some other processor if they turn you down, they ARE the processors. Therefore, they should be under intense scrutiny when they refuse.

I think the mint should maintain a payment processor, and the post office should maintain an official email address for everyone. these are basic things we need to exist in society, we should not be at the whims of private organizations.

Post office offering emails is an interesting idea if you extend it further in the physical world. As in, using this identifier to deliver correspondence/parcels as well.

pros:

- privacy. Senders have zero idea where you actually are. mapping to physical addresses is performed by the post.

- no need to update addresses in a million accounts when you move, your email points to the new physical address automatically (no idea how that works in other countries, but here you can set automatic forwarding for at most 1.5 years after you move).

cons:

- goods being sent to gmail addresses

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#518

Post by projektfu »

littlecranky67 wrote: post #349
projektfu wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a strong case for, perhaps, Algorand[1], but Bitcoin can no longer play this role properly. Transactions are too difficult and slow and the network is too expensive. And Lightning is not a real solution. 1. Specifically a stablecoin running on the network

Why is Lightning not a solution, care to elaborate?

It's basically unused and difficult for even motivated users to set up. If it was going to work, it would have been successful by now.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#519

Post by axus »

egypturnash wrote: post #250
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the mint should maintain a payment processor, and the post office should maintain an official email address for everyone. these are basic things we need to exist in society, we should not be at the whims of private organizations.

Is a payment processor operated by the Federal Reserve good enough? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedNow Well, it probably would be, except guess who killed it in favor of a crypto scheme? https://www.jitumaster.com/2025/06/us-president-signs-execut... I agree about the PO though. Social media shouldn't be a for-profit enterprise either.

I thought FedNow was for settlement between banks, not a consumer-facing service. That would be a "Central Bank Digital Currency": https://www.federalreserve.gov/central-bank-digital-currency...

There were some bills on the subject, Republicans opposed to a CBDC to demonstrate their libertarian credentials:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1919...

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1430...

HR-1919 passed the house, but it's not clear if "they" intend to bring it up for vote in the Senate.

People have submitted comments to the gov for using XRP as a mechanism, but AI tells me that FedNow is not killed or being replaced.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#520

Post by eastbound »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #483
pembrook wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

James Damore.

*Skud incoming* ← and that is exactly what destroying a life means. Criticizing to no end while the guy wrote a perfectly scientific paper, to the point that he cannot work with his potential.

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