Petition against payment processors who forced Steam games ban roars past 140,000 signatures

[Zoaea]

As an ace that mostly plays cute games like stardew valley I find this move abhorrent! I don't care if I would have never played a single game that was banned. I don't care if it was all trashed. It was not worth being in the store... The payment system should focus on processing our money to the vendor. Not regulating what is vended. I can't even see a reason for them to voice what should or shouldn't be sold other than products that promote tons of fraud that they lose money on...

Not only are they blocking sales through their payment systems, they're causing steam to not allow us to buy through other methods either... The only reason a game should be removed from the steam library is because steam itself finds it to be a trash game that's just taking up space. (Or for example, it's stealing someone else's work and re-skinning it).

[Dayee]

Okay so? While i do agree visa/mastercard is the ahole for this change org petition wont change anything, looking at how trashy paypal became and a lot of people still use it.
The real way to stop it is just using in house wallet(steam card) while visa can deny you buying the game directly they cannot deny buying the in house wallet credit.
Let's be real boycotting visa/mastercard is neigh impossible

[Joshua]

Japan had this happen for legal content, one was an otaku dating site. They fought back by threatening to ban visa and MasterCard from being able to do business in their country. If it is legal in your country then payment processors should not be allowed to dictate you can't buy it.

[Arkitekt]

Bunch of porn-addicted coomers complaining.

Huge swing and a miss...

[Avery]

Credit cards are not "peoples" money. They are the financial institutions loan to you - by them. You want that stuff, go get a steam card and top up that way. Ez.

Yes, it's a loan, not a gift, which means you pay them back.

Imagine if, through the foot-in-the-door or door-in-the-face approach, credit card companies dictated where you could eat, what kind of house or car you could buy, and so on because, "they loaned you the money, so they get to dictate what you can and can't buy with it." And this is not a slippery slope fallacy because, under capitalism, if you give these corporations an inch, they'll take the whole world.

[Irrelevant]

Bunch of porn-addicted coomers complaining.

The issue is that credit companies can be forced to not allow certain games, for example some dark souls bosses are considered 18+ with how there designs are of they made it so you can't buy them cause there deemed to inappropriate mind you they can't just make it where the boss is differently designed it ruins the lore and story if they have to change it plus what if games like let's say a horror game that someone spent hours to just make the levels alone then had to remove half the horror cause the blood its the ideal fo companies being able to control what people do despite it also being the consumers money. So it isn't just cause the porn it's cause if they can do that easily and deny sales of a horror or game that isn't porn related cause it's to inappropriate so please don't try to argue cause seems only game you play is "my little pony:kingdom quest" so shush.

[Ableon]

They don't give a crap about what a bunch of gooners think. This slop should have never been let on the platform to begin with.

[LlIkReDrUm]

Why are payment processing companies such as Visa and Mastercard monitoring purchases made by consumers? That is supposed to be confidential information and should not be viewed by anyone at these companies unless there is a crime being committed, and even then they have no right to be deciding who can purchase any item digital or not PERIOD. This is a privacy right of the consumer and should never be in the eyes of visa or Mastercard. This is a violation of people's rights and should be taken to court not petitioned. Are credit card companies above the law? No! This is ridiculous. To much power for companies that are supposed to be just processing purchases.

[D]

Credit cards are not "peoples" money. They are the financial institutions loan to you - by them. You want that stuff, go get a steam card and top up that way. Ez.

incorrect. My bank card has a visa on it. It's a debit card that removes money directly from my bank account. But if visa has their way I can no longer purchase things they deem inappropriate by using the visa function. That's not a loan, it's my money. It's not their place to say what I spend it on so long as it's not illegal. This moral rant brought to you by American Express.

[Lorix]

For the people saying it's just coomer games vile exhumed a horror walking sim was just delisted and banned by valve because of implied violence and it's being traced back to this group

[Liggliluff]

EU, make it illegal for payment services to regulate what we can buy and not buy.

It's basic slippery-slope. Today they ban excessive gore, tomorrow they ban any gore.

Visa and Master Card are major companies that almost everyone globally, around the whole planet use. If they're allowed to chose what we can and can't consume or in some cases: what we're allowed to earn money from. That'll just lead to corruption and abuse. The world is already corrupt, it doesn't have to go further.

There are of course illegal things that people can do, and that's a different thing. If Steam was hosting actual illegal content (as in, allowing people from a region where it is illegal to purchase it with Mastercard and Visa), then they can refuse it. But as long as the product or service is legal for said person in their region, then they shouldn't be allowed to refuse.

This should be similar to net neutrality. An internet service provider (ISP) isn't allowed to dictate what you can and can't do on the internet. Neither should a payment service provider.

[Ayra]

And yet I don't see Mastercard and VISA on their high horses targeting OnlyFans...

Allowing this will just open the door for Mastercard and VISA to push the boundaries on what they deem "appropriate". No gore and horror today, no games with political undertones tomorrow.

There's a reason why there are 18+ content control settings on Steam.

[Intheftin]

Why should everyone even bother with this? Its our moneybwe use it as we want. If Australia really wants these removed, just have steam removed and itch.io rdmoved from that region so no one else is affected. Simple and effective to avoid this bs going about.

[Dd]

Bunch of Aussie making decisions for the world, so many people are caught in the cross fire, all in the name of *Protecting* the *Women and Children*, what lies. It's all about Control. Real living people are suffering but they went and targeted people who sleeps all day, draws all day, being antisocial and what not over FICTIONAL characters. I'm praying for a miracle to smite Visa/MasterCard for this.

[SethNW]

Someone should make that EU citizen petition, like Stop Killing Games and gather signatures, so EU goes after payment processors like Japan. Payment processors are like fully unregulated police, also known as mafia, since they control flow of the money and can shut down anything, censor anything, without any debate, with no judge or justice, just based on whim. And they all do exact same thing, they are like cartel, not competing with each other. Any sort of police needs regulation and any sort of punishment like that needs to be appealable and properly judged based on laws. Not this corporate wild west justice.