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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

#571

Post by ramesh31 »

pfisch wrote: post #555
ramesh31 wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That's the clause in the agreement they use to justify the increase in rates, but it's unclear it's actually "risky" when it's a large company like Valve. The risk is not from Valve; disputes pass through to the processor. This is the same problem dating sites, gambling, etc. all deal with. Any sufficiently large adult oriented business becomes a de-facto payment processor, where their entire core business function…

Steam has been selling these games for years without ever saying there was a problem with this. So has itch.

>Steam has been selling these games for years without ever saying there was a problem with this. So has itch.

Until now, when they did.

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

#572

Post by evan_ »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #306
atmavatar wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because one of the goals of project 2025 is to make porn illegal. Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predat…

So they want to not have women abort children, but also not have them aware of how their bodies and sex works. Surely not a formula for a dysfunctional future generation.

It’s not a contradiction at all, they want women to get knocked up as early as possible because (the thought is) that makes them easier to control. That’s what all this “tradwife” propaganda is about.

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

#573

Post by vunderba »

Shekelphile wrote: post #454
davikr wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that, but also furry content has been targeted in the past in other websites.

[flagged]

Sounds like somebody drinks from the same crazy well as Greg Abbott.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/education/2025/0...

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

#574

Post by globalnode »

ben_w wrote: post #241
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.

> Don't like porn? Don't buy it. Simple as that. The claim isn't "we don't like it", the claim is "this is damaging to society". I don't agree with such things in many cases (and many people disagree with me when I'm the one saying something is damaging to society), but it's important to note the difference or you will always be arguing against something other than their claim. > No one, including governments or paym…

Even if thats their claim, I doubt it has evidence. What if its actually beneficial to society?

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

#575

Post by quantummagic »

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.

I suspect that a lot of people who object to this censorship, would be perfectly fine with a game being pulled because say it glorified owning slaves, or if gameplay was explicitly anti-homosexual. Then they would see the harms, employ their empathy, and support the censorship. Not everyone, of course, but a lot of the people who are outraged about this article.

Seems like everyone is pro-censorship, when they disagree with those being targeted. Most people supported censorship for anti-vaxers during Covid for instance. So in most cases it really just comes down to how many people are anti-porn, rather than any stance on censorship in general.

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

#576

Post by egypturnash »

uncircle wrote: post #114
egypturnash wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Random thoughts: * anything using proof-of-work is still gonna be a hard sell * good luck figuring out how to get the user experience on both ends appear to be in USD without ever having to give a shit about the constantly-fluctuating value of BTC * fun times ahead when you get big enough for the government to notice you and start requiring you to comply with all kinds of arcane regulations

1. Proof-of-work is a feature. 2. Just do the conversion at the time of sale. 3. Government prohibition and restriction of our rights is a terrible problem and it's why Bitcoin was invented in the first place. It's a necessary fight if only to keep government power in check, unless one really believes the State is always right and always has our best interest in mind. I don't.

The colossal amount of energy burnt by proof-of-work is one of the reasons people who are not cryptobros loathe crypto.

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

#577

Post by elijahdl »

unclad5968 wrote: post #500
elijahdl wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pornography is the canary in the coalmine of protected speech. When you give a group the ability to censor content on the basis of "obscenity", then that group and other groups can use this to label other subjects they don't like as obscene. LGBTQ+ interest topics are especially vulnerable to this, as it is often made the case that being gay or trans is only about sex. You don't have to consume pornography yourself i…

I don't think LBGTQ+ are too harmed by the removal of "Sex adventures Incest Family" or "Interactive Sex Mother Son Incest BDSM" or "Reincarnation adventure going to rape all NPCS VR" front he steam store. I don't think too many LGBTQ like to include rapists or incest adventures into their group. I could be wrong though.

I agree with you in that most LGBTQ+ folks don't like being grouped in with incest-promoting games, but that's exactly what MasterCard and Visa are doing by forcing platforms to indiscriminately remove adult content.

It should be up to individual platforms to moderate this content on a case by case basis, not the payment processors.

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

#578

Post by fc417fc802 »

anonym29 wrote: post #545
fc417fc802 wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am expressing neither support nor opposition to any particular policy position in that comment, merely putting forth the general principle that any time you find yourself to be an outlier you should very carefully examine how that came to be. It's a natural extension of Chesterton's fence. I think it also follows from such a principle that in general the relevant reasoning should be explicitly articulated when disc…

What gives you the impression that I might be offering my critiques lightly or arrogantly, as opposed to only after arriving at them through extensive, careful, and deliberate thought? Humans engaged in tribalistic groupthink committing moral atrocities is a tale as old as time. It is never wise to accept a majority or status quo position reflexively without thoroughly interrogating the ideas held within. A great dea…

> What gives you the impression that I might be offering my critiques lightly or arrogantly, as opposed to only after arriving at them through extensive, careful, and deliberate thought?

Perhaps the fact that you made a claim without bothering to explain this supposed "extensive, careful, and deliberate thought" of yours? Also the fact that your tone generally comes across as ideologically charged; in my experience zealots rarely engage in patient critical thinking.

Certainly I don't suggest that one should blindly favor the status quo when given the chance to think things through. However absent careful thought the status quo is the obvious default. When in Rome and all that. There is nearly always a reason that things are done the way they are done although often the particulars will be quite convoluted.

> It is not arrogant to assert that loss of innocent human life is reprehensible and the societies that normalize it should be condemned.

Is it really your intent to imply that I have called for such? That is quite the wild leap. I feel compelled to object that the turn this exchange has taken does not come across as being one of good faith.

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

#579

Post by leptons »

mwill wrote: post #17
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")

>These conservative groups aren't pressuring Steam and Itch directly

Pretty soon (in the U.S.) all porn and sexual-adjacent content is going to be illegal. The christo-fascists currently in power said they were going to do it, and they will.

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

#580

Post by phire »

fenomas wrote: post #566
ben_w wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't like porn? Don't buy it. Simple as that. The claim isn't "we don't like it", the claim is "this is damaging to society". I don't agree with such things in many cases (and many people disagree with me when I'm the one saying something is damaging to society), but it's important to note the difference or you will always be arguing against something other than their claim. > No one, including governments or paym…

> The claim isn't "we don't like it", the claim is "this is damaging to society" That's their framing , it's not what they actually do. If Collective Shout was a group that studied which things caused harm, and then campaigned against those things, then the point you're trying to make could stand. They're not. They've campaigned to ban rap artists, GTA 5, "50 Shades", lingerie ads, whatever random thing is around at…

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