This is the start. Mastercard and Visa will soon block you from other content like movies and music (if it’s explicit) and books.
They are at the whims of religious extremists.
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
431 points (99.8% liked)
PC Gaming
11916 readers
322 users here now
For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki
Rules:
- Be Respectful.
- No Spam or Porn.
- No Advertising.
- No Memes.
- No Tech Support.
- No questions about buying/building computers.
- No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
- No Let's Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
- No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
- Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
431
Itch.io are seeking out new payment processors who are more comfortable with adult material
(www.rockpapershotgun.com)
Or, even worse: At the whims of the president
It would be a convenient way to bypass having to pass legislation, allowing more consolidation of power in the executive branch
Up next for removal: Wolfenstein; because it hurts the Nazis feelings
Christ Card companies
I criticised how apologetic itch.io's statement was towards the payment mafia, but credits where it's due:
Going nuclear was the smart move. I seriously doubt this censorship wave would've gathered so much attention if itch.io only delisted games with the content the mafia is currently going against. It helps to avoid that slippery slope, where people turn a blind eye to small violations of their agency until it's on something that personally matters to them.
It's also sensible to look for alternatives, so it doesn't need to rely on the mafia on first place. A bit too late, but better late than never.
Did they even have the option not to go nuclear? From the sounds of their blog post, they would have spent the proper amount of time to do what they were being "asked" (threatened) to do, if they were even given time to do so. They said their preferred decision would have been to ask every NSFW dev if they complied with the payment processors they accept, but the time they were expected to implement all that was so short that they couldn't do that fairly.
Did they even have the option not to go nuclear?
Yes: hide only the games tagged "adult" (subset tag), instead of all games tagged "nsfw" (superset tag), to reduce the disruption. And then work swiftly to relist the adult games with content not being targeted by the payment mafia. Even if itch.io showed one or two false negatives, it would already be a clear sign of good will towards the mafia.
I'm glad the people working there did not do this though. I hope itch io lets the disruption stays on, for as long as possible; preferably affecting as many non-adult games as possible.
I'll do direct bank transfers if it means no censorship.
The issue I have with non-credit card purchases is who owns the fraud transactions. For that reason alone, I don't like the idea of giving any site full banking information, especially given the sheer amount of data exfiltration that takes place on a regular basis.
We really need a push based payment system. It's absurd someone can take money from you simply by knowing your credit card or bank numbers
Wait, where in the world does that happen?
..don't tell me that in the US if someone has your banking details they can do literally anything they want, and just empty your account
Yes that's how it works
Sepa Direct Debits work in basically every SWIFT-connected country too, so that's most of the world.
They absolutely can, yes.
So what do you do to set up automatic payments or buy something online where chips cannot be read? Do you get a notification to approve the transaction every time? It sounds more like you're just ignorant as to how open these systems still are to abuse...
Yes. Every purchase I do has two-factor authentication
If I do automatic payment, I need to set it up manually and also set a custom limit of how much is allowed to be pulled. I also typically get a notification every time an automatic transaction is planned to occur
Two factor how? Some would argue a CVV is a second factor, which is actually used in the US.
(I don't ask to be combative but to clarify the differences. I would not call a CVV true two factor)
CVV is printed on the same side as the CC these days. It's literally as if your CC was 19 numbers long instead of 16. If you still have a card where it's printed on the back then yeah, it's sort of a "I have physical access to the card to flip it" factor of authentication.
My phone if it isn't a physical purchase where the chip on the card is used
So true two factor then. Sounds too expensive for American corpos to implement, then...
I fucking wish
this. it sorta annoys me putting in the payee endpoint as well. You should be able to get a number or code or whatnot from the place wanting payment and it will setup the payee endpoint and give you a code. You should then be able to purchase something and give the payee the code which they can do to send a bill to whats setup at your bank. then you go and authorize the payment and of course someone could set it to always accept payments from the payee if they are lazy. It also super annoys me that there is not more options on bank accounts. I want my savings to only allow transfers out to specific accounts I setup. Like my checking. Not allowing any transfers from other institutions. The checking can then be open and I can trasfer there before doing something else with it. Any type of transfer should always do a balance check and not go if insufficient balance is available with no fee.
A lot of European countries have direct bank transactions streamlined, you scan a QR code and fraud is owned by the bank.
It's ecen more secure than cards, since you can't get double charged by the vendor.
What Americans tend to refer to as "fraud protection" is charge back policies, where the payment processor acts as Content Police and revert transactions if they hear the vendor was unfair to their customer (and they usually are on the side of the customer).
My EU bank won't do that even on my credit card, because it's insane that one would expect a financial institution to be judge, jury, and executioner in the case of a disagreement over legal services rendered.
Americans have to own up to the uncomfortable fact that dependence on these policies is what keeps the big credit cars companies in power, on top of severely driving up consumer prices (unfairly weighted towards the rich of course who get cashbacks thanks to the obscene money Visa makes on their enormous transaction fees) and being incredibly unfair to small vendors who don't have the means to meaningfully dispute fraudulent chargebacks.
Banks can and absolutely do honor chargeback requests, though the terminology is usually different, even in the EU. But these are usually always honored (eg SDD Reversal or MOIs).
"Regular" SDDs can only be done within 5 business days apparently. Not that I would know, my bank certainly doesn't offer a magic money back button to their private customers, and as I remember it my contract only allows transaction reversal in case of identity fraud, basically.
As far as I can tell, SDDs are a B2B-oriented tool that can only be initiated in particular circumstances such as a merchant being unable to fulfill an order altogether – i.e. when the legal case for a breach of contract is so unambiguous that it isn't worth either party's time to go to court. That's very different from the American thinking of "my hotel room wasn't as clean as I like it so I'm going to do a chargeback because that's my Visa-given right".
5 days is the period for a no-questions-asked reversal. It's a consumer right, SDD isn't just B2B. Banks do in fact offer a "magic money back" button for SDDs.
SDDs are what happens when you for example purchase an item (regular SDD) or a subscription (recurring SDD) online and provide your IBAN to the company providing it. The company then taking funds from your account with nothing but that IBAN is done through SDD. And yes, your bank will let you reverse that within 5 days, no questions asked (precisely because only an IBAN is required).
After 5 days, it's still possible (eg through MOI) but that's not guaranteed. I know this stuff because I deal with it professionally on a daily basis.
I'm cool with going around the system if it has become corrupt by enforcing censorship. We need a way for CryptoCurrency to become standard.
My country has our own government operated, fast, simple and cheap payment method so now visa and mastercard are making the US government pressure us to destroy it
Which country?
Brazil
.... Trump probably wants to get you on the crypto standard so he can make Bolsonaro coins a thing with a royalty to him. America is so fully mobbed up now, sanctioning judges...
Me, too.
It's how my clients pay me, so I can't complain!
Hey man I’m down to clown with this method
Rule of acquisition #85: Never let the competition know what you're thinking
In this case I interpret the competition to be the various payment processors that might be willing to serve for additional fees