Indie video game marketplace Itch.io announced this week that it has “deindexed” adult and not-safe-for-work games, removing them from its browse and search pages. The company stated the move was in response to a campaign by Collective Shout, an advocacy group that has previously criticized video games, rap music, and lingerie commercials. The group targeted both Itch.io and Steam for selling “No Mercy,” a game that depicts rape and incest.
In an open letter addressed to executives at PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, and other payment processors, Collective Shout argued that games “endorsing men’s sexualized abuse and torture of women and girls fly in the face of efforts to address violence against women.” The organization added, “We do not see how facilitating payment transactions and deriving financial benefit from these violent and unethical games is consistent with your corporate values and mission statements.”
The campaign appears to have had an impact. Steam announced earlier this month that it would ban games that “may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers.” Similarly, Itch.io stated, “To ensure that we can continue to operate and provide a marketplace for all developers, we must prioritize our relationship with our payment partners and take immediate steps towards compliance.”
Itch.io also clarified that “No Mercy” had been “temporarily available on itch.io before being banned back in April,” and that “the situation developed rapidly,” forcing the company to “act urgently to protect the platform’s core payment infrastructure” without providing advanced notice to creators.
The company is now conducting a “comprehensive audit” to ensure that games on the marketplace meet “the requirements of our payment processors.” Adult content will remain deindexed until the audit is complete. After the audit, NSFW game creators will be required to confirm that their content complies with the policies of their linked payment processors.
Critics on social media pointed out that Itch.io’s current terms state that adult content violations are “permanent with no chance of appeal” and that funds in an offending account “will not be eligible for payout.” One developer summarized the policy as, “If you violate the rules, we take all your money. Not just the money from that work, ALL your money from EVERYTHING you’ve ever made.”
This is not the first time payment companies have pressured platforms over adult content. Last year, Gumroad cited restrictions from payment processors when it implemented stricter rules around NSFW art. OnlyFans also blamed “banking partners and payment providers” when it initially banned explicit content, though it later reversed the decision.
A Change.org petition with over 137,000 verified signatures criticizes Mastercard and Visa for their role in such decisions. The petition demands that payment companies “stop censoring legal fictional content that complies with the law and platform standards” and “reject influence from activist groups that promote moral panic or misrepresent fiction as harm.”