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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

#791

Post by dahart »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #776
dahart wrote: post #754

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people think porn is worse than censorship. Some of those people even feel that censorship is good, not damaging at all, and should be mandatory. I’m not one of those, though it does seem like there’s a possibility that some of the things we’re doing a lot of in society today, like porn and also social media and AI, are changing society in ways we don’t understand yet and don’t have control over. I don’t think i…

> Should private payment processors be free to choose whose money they process? We shouldn't have private payment processors. Access to the economy should not itself be a product that you have to buy and then worry about whether you own it or it owns you.

What’s the alternative? How do you propose to fix it?

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

#792

Post by zbentley »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #608
delecti wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Turns out it's actually an R bill, with exclusively R sponsors, and now I'm wondering what awful shit is hiding in it. It seems to me like if you thought something was good and then switched to thinking it was bad based just on who proposed it, you need to stop being prejudiced. Evaluate ideas (or bills) for their merits, not based on who originated them.

> Evaluate ideas (or bills) for their merits, not based on who originated them.

Ideas? Sure. Bills? No.

So much of how a piece of legislation affects society has to do with the agendas of the people behind it (no matter what it says in text) and the means by which the executive implements it (often hand-in-glove with the agendas of the legislation’s originators).

https://www.eatingpolicy.com/p/understanding-the-cascade-of-...

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

#793

Post by BriggyDwiggs42 »

rustystump wrote: post #469
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]

No, nobody likes incest porn and most want to ban it, which is why it’s a smart strategy as a person who wants to censor things most people don’t find disagreeable to take actions against incest porn which conveniently just so happen to also affect lgbt stuff.

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

#794

Post by littlecranky67 »

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.

It is already here, it is called Bitcoin (with Lightning possibly). And this is not fantasy, the exact same story happened to Pornhub in 2018 - in which they got banned from Visa/MC and purged 60% of their content. They are banned to this day, and now accept Bitcoin/Crypto Payments as well as SEPA transfers in the EU.

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

#795

Post by littlecranky67 »

beeflet wrote: post #148
uncircle wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Third-parties take care of this bureaucracy for you. Check out the Phoenix wallet, for example. (Unaffiliated, I hold some pocket money on there not to run a Lightning node myself) The on-chain transaction is just to "fund" a channel between two parties. These two parties can then make unlimited trasnfers between each other instantaneously for free. These nodes are organised in a network and can relay payment from ot…

>Third-parties take care of this bureaucracy for you. Check out the Phoenix wallet, for example. Sort of defeats the purpose then, doesn't it? Why not just make lightning payments directly from your bitcoin exchange?

In the case of Phoenix, you have semi-custody - i.e. control over your coin, and it can't be taken from you. There are other non-custodial wallets (Wallet of Satoshi) which are like an exchange - so they can rug pull you anytime just as Paypal can.

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

#796

Post by Dylan16807 »

o11c wrote: post #188
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.

There's a lot of dishonesty relating to this. This really isn't about Puritanism, unless you're redefining Puritanism to mean having any morality at all. Do you really want to compel selling access to pedo games? Do you really want to compel selling access to rape games? Do you really want to compel selling access to incest games? Do you really want to compel selling access to domestic violence games? [this is the on…

I don't want to compel any stores to sell anything, but I do want to compel monopoly/duopoly money processors to process money for legitimate transactions for legal goods.

And the list of games targeted and affected here is really expansive.

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

#797

Post by haneefmubarak »

dahart wrote: post #791
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Should private payment processors be free to choose whose money they process? We shouldn't have private payment processors. Access to the economy should not itself be a product that you have to buy and then worry about whether you own it or it owns you.

What’s the alternative? How do you propose to fix it?

Notionally, opening new banks and/or buying an existing one that lacks current customers is feasible. Presumably once you do that, you could easily plug into FedWire/FedACH/FedNow, which would allow you to process electronic payments on behalf of whomever you choose to bank, as long as you comply with all the KYC/AML and other finance regs. You might not be able to process visa and mastercard, but virtually any of your customers' customers presumably still have financial accounts that are enabled on Fed rails, which will not be as likely to discriminate. Requiring end-customers to initiate payment (push) as opposed to doing pull, would also reduce transaction reversal risk.

I don't really the ultimate purpose of the position taken by either side here, but it does seem to me that there's a path by which both can coexist, even if difficult.

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

#799

Post by wormius »

Just closed my dev acct (only had an old 2015 puzzle game I made, 2 sales, no huge deal personally), but decided to put my 4.57 where my mouth is (no payout, waaaaaaah, cuz 5 dollar minimum). And told them exactly why I am doing so.

Money talks, and it's one of the few ways I have to show my opposition. I hope others will do the same. It's sad, because itch is kinda one of the last few places for "indie" as a thing with the vibe of indies, at least (I mean they aren't Steam or the other big publishers). I'm surprised Epic didn't buy them out yet just like they did with Bandcamp. Probably next on the block.

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

#800

Post by wormius »

Also - like... I absolutely hate cryptocurrency, but if this is what it comes to, then make that a payment option, and leave up the "bad naughty legal stuff" for us consenting adults to decide (but I know, it won't be legal for long as these reactionaries keep pummeling away at free speech while using the rhetoric of 'Free Speech' to gain further control of communication systems).
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