Payment processors like MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal exert tremendous power over what people are able to access and purchase online, and we are seeing exactly how this amounts to censorship in the cases of gaming platforms Steam and Itch.io. Here’s the situation:

• In July, an Australian-based advocacy organization that pushes for restrictive content moderation policies called for payment processors to drop Steam and Itch.io due to their hosting of games they claimed were inappropriate.

• Days later, Steam updated their rules to ban content that may violate the standards of their payment processors, including adult content, and started removing games. Itch.io followed suit soon after and started deplatforming “NSFW” games.

• In response to backlash, Steam and Itch.io have specifically stated that these actions were in response to pressure from their payment processors

As we already know, censorship like this that aims to target “adult” content always impacts vulnerable groups, and this case is no different, with LGBTQ+ content and indie developers being significantly impacted by this deplatforming.

This abuse of power by payment processors isn’t new. We’ve seen similar actions by PayPal when banning Palestinians from using its platform, and MasterCard’s restrictive policies that make it near impossible for sexworkers to use.

Payment processors cannot be the arbitrators of what is and isn’t acceptable online content. Sign the petition to demand MasterCard and Visa stop their financial censorship, and to send a message to your lawmakers to investigate the actions of these companies.