Payment companies Visa, Mastercard, 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-pornography group Collective Shout, which accused the platforms of hosting games containing rape, sexual violence, and incest.
Itch.io, an independent gaming platform, removed all not-safe-for-work (NSFW) games from its library last week to prevent payments being blocked across its entire service. The company said it acted urgently to protect its payment infrastructure, but the blanket removal also affected games with LGBTQ+ themes, sparking concerns about censorship.
Steam, which has an estimated 132 million active monthly 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, harassment, and death threats since the campaign launch.
A Change.org petition calling for payment processors to stop controlling what people can play has garnered over 147,000 signatures. Elon Musk posted 'bravo' in response to the petition and expressed interest in launching his own X payments platform. Critics argue that banning sexual content could lead to further restrictions on LGBTQ+ expression.
