Payment giants Mastercard, Visa and Stripe are facing public backlash, including from billionaire Elon Musk, after pressuring online gaming platforms to remove hundreds of adult games. The move followed an open letter from Australian anti-porn group Collective Shout, which called on payment providers to cease services to Steam and Itch.io, claiming games contained content such as rape and incest.
Itch.io last week removed all not-safe-for-work (NSFW) games from its library to prevent payments being blocked across its entire service. The company said it acted urgently to protect its core payment infrastructure, but acknowledged the abrupt change was not ideal. Some users reported being unable to play previously purchased games, which Itch.io denied.
Steam, with an estimated 132 million monthly active users, also removed hundreds of titles earlier this month in response to pressure from payment processors. Collective Shout's director, Melinda Tankard Reist, said she and her team had received abuse and threats since the campaign launch.
A Change.org petition calling for payment processors to stop controlling content has garnered over 147,000 signatures. Elon Musk praised the petition, saying he wanted to launch his own X payments platform soon. Critics, including LGBTQ+ community members, warned that banning sexual content could lead to broader censorship.
Collective Shout said the blanket removal of NSFW games was not its objective, noting Itch.io plans to introduce compliance measures for such content. The group has long campaigned for internet filters and recently targeted Musk's X over adult content.
