Steam is cracking down on porn games, to keep Payment Processors happy.
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Well in germany doing porn that implies incest or csam even if the actors are not related or over 18 can still get you jail time
CSAM sure, but is incest porn really mentioned in the StGB? There's 173 StGB, but that is for the actual act and not pretending.
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I don't have any fear that Gabe will tank steam.
But I will fear what happens after him
Or imagine the worst case. Gabe is the world's greatest prankster. He's a true internet troll for the ages. He's spent decades getting millions and millions of people dependent on his game hosting. He's got hardware. He stands astride the game industry like a colossus. But the key is that Valve is still a private corporation. In theory, Gabe could do whatever he wants with it. Including, finally committing the last stage of his ultimate prank. One day...he just flips the off switch. Steam never enshittifies. It just shuts off forever without warning.
And thus, with one stroke, his master chess move concluded (to reasons comprehensible only to Gabe), he just shuts it off and walks away. His last words in public are, "it turns out, I was the greatest gamer of all the whole time..."
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On what grounds would doing so operationally impair the platform? Is it illegal? Does it prevent them from servicing other businesses in a timely fashion? Does it cost more money in a way that can't be reflected in the service fee structure?
Explain to me what reason they would have for objecting that isn't just a different way of phrasing "morality judgment" or "image management".Do you also think that a shipping company should be able to refuse to ship products from businesses they don't approve of, even if it's functionally identical to something else they would ship?
What about either of those companies refusing service to someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity?People used to say it's bad business to service gays, blacks, Jews, Catholics, Hispanics and the Irish. At some point we decided that businesses need to shut the fuck up and just do business without judging, or else their service has no place in society.
The free market that businesses love so much exists entirely through the grace and in the service of society at large. If they fail to at least not harm society, why should society extend that courtesy to them?shipping company should be able to refuse to ship products from businesses they don’t approve of
Sure, I don't have a problem with that. I would use another shipping company.
What about either of those companies refusing service to someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity?
That is not remotely the same thing and a gross false equivalence.
We're talking about platforming incest hentai games and you're making a comparison to serving Black and queer people. I don't think we're going to see eye to eye on this, have a good one.
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First they came for the incestuous porn
Then they came for the furries
Then they came for games with violence
Then...
Then...
Then...Kept cumming?
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Why shouldn’t the payment processors get a say in the payments they process? Illegal or not, why should they be forced to process payments that facilitate things against their beliefs?
Because they hold an effective monopoly over the payment process.
But they don't hold a monopoly. And at least for now, they are private businesses. If your argument is that they should be nationalized, that's a different conversation and I think we'd agree on more.
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Is it just me, or does the first photo seem to read that the payment processor standards and the removal of invest games are unrelated? Like, games removed that violate payments processor standards removed. At the same time, incest games are removed too.
With the paragraph break it feels unclear that these incest games are likely in violation of the standards, and instead that they are seperate matters and in fact payments processors may not care about incest games at all.
It’s just you.
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CSAM sure, but is incest porn really mentioned in the StGB? There's 173 StGB, but that is for the actual act and not pretending.
Well after a bit of research it seems i was wrong with incest porn. Even the act is not punishable as long as it is not vaginal sex
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I’m equally cautious and curious… Redemption of Li Wei…?
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I hope that the EU creates a digital currency system that is universal, and for privacy coins to become common. I don't want to deal with American payment processors, because they want to prevent me from supporting the people who make my life better.
Payment should be a dumb pipe, allowing me and you to uphold the social contract.
Ability to pay for anything legal implies accountability. I doubt payment processors are creating these rules because they're afraid of Jesus.
They just did the math and there's probably a ton of disputes/chargebacks on certain content.
Should two consenting adults be able to pay each other for whatever the fuck - absolutely. But dumb pipe only sounds really good until you get scammed.
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Thank you for proving my point. Sexuality is not a decision, and that doesn't stop at what gender(s) you're attracted to.
Furries are not a gender, regardless of how you try to twist it.
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Wait a minute, PayPal is pulling puritanical bullshit again? Did they learn nothing from the last time they tried that?
wrote last edited by [email protected]This has been a thing for at least ten years now. Credit card and money processor companies have policied content for ages. That's why it's hard in some ways to pay for porn. They fucking strong arm and moralize. To be fair I only have like one game on steam that's smut but since it was snow days I'm betting it will be removed.
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Agreed. If it's not illegal then it should be allowed.
Not that I approve of this type of content, but corporations should not be selectively enforcing their morals.So here's the rub. I agree with you but rules are not universal. They don't give a shit about the money they're making now they see the countries whose markets they can't enter because of various laws and get pissed. So we get held to the most restricted standards that will allow them the most business. It's bs. Basically since they want to do hypothetical business in like... Vietnam, we have to loose our smut.
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It's not about porn, It's about corporations dictating what type of content can be sold. You may not care about porn but what if they were to start going after LGBT stuff or something like that?
Exactly. Have people forgotten how Project 2025 explicitly wants to classify trans people and queer people more generally as inherently pornographic? Like, ultimately they fundamentally do not accept that trans folks just want to live as we are. They believe that people transition as some sort of public act of sex exhibitionism. They believe it is akin to child abuse for a child to be exposed to the concept of gay people existing. That is what they truly in their hearts believe. They believe that any LGBT content is inherently pornographic. If the theocrats can pressure Mastercard to shut down porn, they can do the same for any content produced about or by queer people of any sort. If they can pressure Steam, they can pressure YouTube or Nebula. As the smaller player, Nebula would be a lot more vulnerable to pressure. What would happen if Nebula had to choose between accepting credit card payments or hosting queer content creators?
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Here's what i think is likely. For one reason or another, they get excessive refund/chargeback requests regarding these types of titles and decided to act as they don't think it's profitable.
I don't think they care what so ever what you buy, as long as it's profitable for them.
None of that is relevant to the other comment's point that these companies should not have that level of authority to dictate what we can or cannot purchase. If it is legal to purchase, then payment processors should not be allowed to deny the purchase. Period.
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Payment processors and financial institutions sure do seem to hold disproportionate amounts of power.
They've been pulling this shit for years. It's just been to stuff you agree with. You think the zoo porn just and drawn CSAM just disappeared from the big platforms and search engines because it was the right thing to do? Nah it was the processors and ad agencies. Pressure from capital. People just didn't care then because they agreed with it.
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You should work on learning how to handle those feelings. Most people just ignore it when other people do stuff they think is gross if it's not hurting anyone.
For example, I think egg salad is pretty gross. I manage this in my day to day life by "not buying egg salad", and if I run into it I usually just "move along quickly", or say "oh, no thank you".
I doubt people are as pushy with furry porn as they are with egg salad, unless you and I live in shockingly different worlds.People doesn't put egg salad on their face and say its their gender.
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Steam should accept bitcoin or some other crypto as default for all titles and only use card for "safe" titles
Steam users are mostly tech savvy enough to do it
Can I send them an unmarked envelope with enough money to buy the games I want, with only my username in the envelope?
That would be cool.
But agreed, I think steam should accept crypto.
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you must be into beastility, if your projecting this much about it, .
Thanks there Freud. You got me there. Can't wait to get home and unload my insecurities in the next animal i see.
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Fuck off
Just because you get hard from stroking your pet, doesn't mean that it's healthy.
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It's been like this for a while in the porn industry. In an interview a while back, Bree Mills says she gets more limited by payment processors than the government (though that might be switching).
Ever wonder why every faux-incest video goes out of the way to say everyone is a step family? Step father, step daughter, step mother, step brother, all somehow living in the same house, over 18, and no blood relation? The first amendment protects them from the US government, so that's not why. Credit card companies are why. The old Taboo series was distributed differently back in the day. Can't make that anymore.
This also applies to some of the more extreme BDSM stuff, like blood play or scat. Won't find them on kink.com.
Yeah, processors and web hosts both play a huge role in policing content. The beasiality and lolicon websites haven't been disappearing for the last 15 years because moral awakening. It's been the web hosts shutting down websites because they violate some local law and it interfered with there profits.
