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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

#611

Post by themaninthedark »

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…

This is the exact claim of "hate speech" as well.

Often both sexual content and hate speech get added to the same clause.

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

#612

Post by stevenAthompson »

godelski wrote: post #443
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…

> it's important to note the difference or you will always be arguing against something other than their claim. I think this is critical insight and applies to a lot of topics. I think it is true for pretty much every heated topic. The mistake we often make is that we believe that the other side is not optimizing correctly. Instead, it is often that they are optimizing but under differing constraints. If we don't pay…

> they are optimizing but under differing constraints

Most often this doesn't happen because one side fails to understand the other, it happens because one side is dishonest about their motivations or goals.

In this case, the censors would like you to believe that they think pornography is harmful. The reality is that they're religious zealots who feel the need to prevent other people from making their own choices about something their religious leaders have told them is evil. They can't admit their real goal though, or people will realize it's just westernized Sharia law and stop taking them seriously.

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

#613

Post by efskap »

FranchuFranchu wrote: post #126
madaxe_again wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just get people to mail you cash. Sounds stupid, but that’s how I built my first ecommerce business in the 90’s, and it was a pretty normal way to pay for stuff online. Cash, money order, bank cheque, whatever.

You can't realistically target anyone outside the US with this.

It worked for Amazon.com in 1995!

> Bezos: We got an order from somebody in Bulgaria, and this person sent us cash through the mail to pay for their order. And they sent us two crisp $100 bills. And they put these two $100 bills inside a floppy disk. And then they put a note on the cover of the floppy disk, and they mailed this whole thing to us. And the note on the cover of the floppy disk said, "The money is inside the floppy disk. The customs inspectors steal the money, but they don't read English." That shows you the effort to which people will go to be able to buy things.

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

#614

Post by justanotherjoe »

drdeca wrote: post #582
supplied_demand wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you clarify how it “harmed” you? You didn’t quite answer that question.

https://xkcd.com/598/ (Except, remove the last panel)

I would say all knowledge have that effect on us. Kinda the inherent drawback of it. Lessens enjoyments somewhat.

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

#615

Post by justanotherjoe »

akomtu wrote: post #202
the_af wrote: post #107

In discussions about this topic, in almost every place I see them, lots of people (against this censorship) are going "I don't play this kind of games" or "I don't personally care about tentacle fetish" (or whatever). I don't get this. Let's say it openly: what's the problem with sex and nudity in games? Why is it so unacceptable -- that even people against the censorship must loudly proclaim it's not "their thing" -…

That's because people recognise that their self-control with regard to violence is solid, they know where the line is and won't have an urge to cross it, but with sex the story is different. Making this type of content mainstream will start a wildfire in our society. I believe this is the main reason why all religions are strict about sex, while at the same time very lax about violence (holy wars, the image of warrio…

Prostitution was legal and regulated by the catholic church as necessary and understandable evil for centuries, until 15th century. Even Thomas Aquinas (huge stickler) agreed. And why wouldn't it be? It was what common sense would tell you. Learned christians would understand sexual sins are far from the worst ones.

Also additional context, before the 12th century priests were allowed to marry and have children. It was taken away, to consolidate the church's property.

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

#616

Post by SirChud »

nosignono wrote: post #205

This is absolutely a wedge to censor LGBTQ+ content. If you can separately argue that adult content should be blocked and LGBTQ+ themes are for adults, then you can block queer content online en masse. Visa and Mastercard have too much power, and are too willing to capitulate.

[flagged]

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

#617

Post by pyuser583 »

MSFT_Edging wrote: post #413
anonym29 wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

Steven Donziger isn’t a journalist. He was a lawyer who was suing Chevron.

I’ve been following the case closely. This is the first time anybody has claimed he’s a journalist, AFAIK.

Am I missing something?

Edit: according to Wikipedia he worked as a journalist for three years before attending law school. So I guess he’s an ex-journalist, and ex-lawyer for that matter.

But calling the persecution of journalists is false. Maybe persecution of environmental lawyers, but lawyers, unlike journalists, are heavily regulated, and face much higher liability for bad acts.

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

#618

Post by rustystump »

healsdata wrote: post #607
rustystump wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s take a step back from political knee jerk reactions and look at the nuance. Say 50% of the queer content on itch is innocuous dating sim games much which may not have any pornographic images at all. There is another chunk, idk the amount, that is clearly not nice and what dishonest groups bundle that 50% into. There is seemingly little interest even acknowledging that other chunk of content as being a problem t…

What data or evidence do you have to suggest that there's a significantly larger amount pornographic LGBT content than there is pornographic straight content on these sites? Why does an LGBT creator that makes a game exploring how the Matrix is a transgender allegory have to actively distance themselves from bisexual dating simulators when I don't recall seeing anything from "Enter the Matrix" distancing themselves f…

Sigh. You completely miss the point. Oh well. For what it is worth, i am against banning innocuous queer content. Cheers.

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

#619

Post by perihelions »

delecti wrote: post #52
crooked-v wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's the Fair Access to Banking Act ( https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/401 ), currently stuck in committee, which would make it illegal for various financial services, including payment processors, to deny service for mere reputational reasons.

I wrongly assumed this was a D bill, and would die in committee. Turns out it's actually an R bill, with exclusively R sponsors, and now I'm wondering what awful shit is hiding in it. Though almost all of the sponsors are from almost 6 months ago, so it might die in committee anyway.

Debanking is a form of social deplatforming that (for now) mostly targets right-wing causes. That's not at all to assert that the bill is wrong or that censorship is right—I'm just clarifying why it's Republicans on the side against censorship, in this context, when in other contexts the roles are flipped.

You can read the bill's author (Kevin Cramer) discussing that bill and his motives for writing it:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250715113010/https://fedsoc.or... ("Debanking: The Newest Threat to Free Speech and Religious Liberty?) (2024)

> [Senator Kevin Cramer] "...I've heard that one from some pretty big bank presidents - but they get a lot of noise in their left ear and you have activist investors and whatnot that are saying, hey, you know what? We don't like coal. We don't like oil, we don't like natural gas. We don't like private prisons, or we don't like ammunition shops or gun manufacturers or whatever the case might be, the entire category or industry and says, "Well, so we're not going to bank them. We're going to debank them. We're not going to bank them. You're disqualified from getting money from us.”, and they're starving these industries out. And all this really is, in my view, you guys is this is a political agenda where they're utilizing the leverage of the financial services sector to accomplish policy goals that they can't accomplish any other way."

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

#620

Post by pdonis »

RankingMember wrote: post #115
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.

The Puritanical origins of the US reverberate to this day. While coming for "freedom of religion" sounds like a noble origin story, the context was that they wanted the freedom to practice a much stricter, restrictive form of religion than that allowed by the Church of England.

Exactly. The Puritans didn't leave England because the church there was too intolerant. They left because it wasn't intolerant enough.
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