Valve have updated Steam’s rules and regulations to prohibit 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”. And in particular, “certain kinds of adult only content”. In other words, they are giving banks, ISPs and credit card companies some degree of control over Steam’s definition of acceptable “adult only content”. All of which potentially has rather dramatic ramifications, given that banks and payment companies have a track record for pressuring platform holders to nuke what they deem to be NSFW material.
NOOOOOOOOOooOOOooooOOoooooo
steam, please don’t…
also, f you purityrannical banks
Looks like stuff is already getting removed, though I’d say it’s largely in the good riddance territory so far. Well, even then, I’m not a fan of this policy.
You can apparently kind of get a live view of what’s being deleted on SteamDB. Look for big chunks of red lines.
Oh wow, I didn’t know you could do that on SteamDB. Look at allllll that red:
I’m really disappointed by this policy, as someone who would prefer a more sex-positive policy. I don’t make adult content, but I’ve heard stories from adult game developers about how murky and inconsistent the policy is, and I have a feeling it’s just going to get worse.
A user on another Discord server I’m on pointed out that these kinds of policies tend to be used to target LGBTQ+ content. I don’t know if that’s happening right now, but I think given the repressive political environment in the United States right now it’s something to keep a look out for here.
oh jolly
Oh, I have sooooooo many feelings about this rn. I’m not even directly impacted and I agree with some of these games going the way of the dodo, but even still, it’s not a good thing.
Obviously I have the “Mistress” moniker in front of my name. It’s a double-entendre: it stands for game “mistress” and sexy “mistress” simultaneously. I started my career in psychology and game dev, but after 2020 I went into sex work & modeling to make ends meet in order to leave Texas with my husband. I don’t make adult games, but I’m certainly around the adult industry & kink community on the regular, so I also get to hear about this stuff.
Yeah, the rules around this are awful. Groups like mine keep pointing out that many kink & sex sites have extensive tagging and rules so people can find content they want and avoid content they don’t want while also disallowing content that could go overboard or be illegal. Most publishing sites, like Steam, don’t use these tags or methods.
By changing their rules to conform to payment processor rules, we’ve gone from “vague guidance” to “lol shoot in the dark and hope for the best.” I make a recurring joke: MasterCard is my #1 fan because they review all of my lewds before they’re posted to LoyalFans. It’s true - all modeling photos on LoyalFans get human reviewed because of MasterCard. They also have my driver’s license, a photo of me holding a sign to prove I’m legit, and background checked me. All they really need at this point are my fingerprints. >.>
Further, hey Ava, remember how I said “Hey I can introduce you to this transgender reporter named Ana Valens? She works at Waypoint?” Yeahhhhhh… welll… the person who first reported Collective Shout’s involvement was Ana… and she got fired over the story. A number of reporters from Waypoint/Vice left with her over what happened. So had we done a thing with her for No Signal, it probably would have been cancelled.
The article was thankfully captured by Wayback Machine, but it’s not live anymore: https://archive.ph/x5cGQ . This is where the core reporting came from.
But, back on the topic, yeah, there is a high level of concern that rules and methods like these could be used to hit against the LGBTQIA+ community, especially us in the T group. The usual “logical slide” they try to institute is “Children Need to Be Protected From Porn” → “Porn is Sexy” → “Transgender People Talk About Sex And Sex Parts” → “Transgender People Are Porn And Should Be Censored.”
As y’all said, with the current political environment, this is pretty worrisome. Cleaning up these areas is definitely needed, but this isn’t the way to do it, imho.
Holy shit. Yikes.
I need to look up all the websites in waypoint’s network and block them in ublock.
she got fired over the story.
Are they just cowards or also idiots? The article got published, so they either approved of it or didn’t know it was coming out. The pressure hit and they scapegoated either way. This is why we need independently funded (and well funded to boot) news sources…
It is Vice we’re talking about, but another editor did try to resurrect Waypoint recently, and Ana Valens had contributed to it again, but as it turns out, Vice’s new owners specifically requested that all coverage of Collective Shout be removed, so … she’s not contributing to Waypoint again.
My guess is a middle editor approved it, and then upper management saw it and wanted to appease some friends
From what I’ve been seeing staffers from Vice saying and intoning, this seems likely. Folks saying things like there was a lot of disorganization and not much direction setting. The editor who published it walked too, and other staffers are talking about walking, so that seems to be pointing the finger at something higher. My guess is also that the core staff didn’t have an issue with it, but the ownership did and called in a rapid audible.
All NSFW games on itch.io have been delisted around July 24, 2025 12:00 AM. Roughly one hour before the mass delisting, leafo posted just “” with no other message in the official Discord server. As of this writing, there has still not yet been an official announcement addressing this change.
Games that have been delisted cannot be found through search on the itch.io website, but you can still access the games if you have a direct link.
Plenty of people in the itch.io Discord are speculating that this is related to the Collective Shout campaign and payment processor rules. But, even if it were not, I think this represents a shift in the industry to become more repressive, which is why I’m posting it here.
Notably, itch.io was a platform once known for posting this, in the wake of Game Jolt banning adult games:
WARNING: ITCHIO IS NOT FOR PRUDES. IF YOU CLICK OUR LINK PLEASE BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU MIGHT SEE
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Right now, only 48 results appear if you filter by the adult tag.
itch.io confirmed that the delisting happened as a result of Collective Shout 2025-07-24T06:00:00Z
I’m updating the thread title to reflect the fact that this is all about Collective Shout.
One actionable thing to do is sign the ACLU petition to Mastercard:
And here’s a compilation of direct action links (compiled by the UNBEATABLE devs, if I understand correctly) that you can do in light of the Steam and itch.io adult content policy changes due to payment processors and Collective Shout. Take action if you can!