im reaching out to discord itch game group owners and bringing this up to them in hopes they bring more attention to this tho im not sure if i should bother them with this either way i hope im not stressing them out over this
Everyone, sign this petition if you want to see change:
https://chng.it/TDzjnxX6fm
It's all about this very issue, we need to show these guys we aren't going to bow to them!
What is most infuriating to me is I'm seeing devs on Bluesky showing screenshots of denied payouts because of the sudden ban of their game, that they had no warning for. These people need to pay rent, to buy food, some need to buy medication. Some people make a lot on Itch, and then to just have their payouts denied because of a sudden rule change that there was no heads up for? Itch is deplorable. And I'm seeing people who are getting shadowbanned who don't have any NSFW content at all, just LGBTQ+ content that's completely SFW. Itch is cooked.
There is a template circulating around on X in case some of you all want to reuse it:
"Dear itch.io team,
I’m writing as a long-time supporter of itch.io and of the vibrant, experimental, and deeply personal work that has flourished on your platform — especially from queer, trans, and marginalized creators whose games may not have found a home elsewhere.
It is with deep concern that I’ve learned about the recent measures to de-index or restrict access to NSFW games on the platform. While I understand that these actions may stem from external pressures—particularly from payment processors— I believe this approach risks undermining the very spirit of creative independence that itch.io has long represented.
Historically, itch.io has been one of the few truly open spaces for boundary-pushing, community-driven work in gaming. Many queer developers have used the platform not just to distribute their games, but to explore identity, intimacy, and survival in ways that mainstream platforms actively suppress. By restricting access to adult content, especially without transparent dialogue or alternative avenues, itch.io inadvertently echoes the censorship and erasure these creators already face elsewhere.
Rather than adopting a blanket de-indexing policy, I urge you to consider more nuanced solutions that preserve your payment infrastructure without compromising on your core values:
In this current political climate—where queer art is increasingly under attack—platforms like itch.io play an essential role. I sincerely hope you will reconsider this course of action and reaffirm your commitment to the creative communities that helped make itch.io what it is today."
everyone should sign this petition to fight back!
www.change.org/p/tell-mastercard-visa-activist-groups-stop-controlling-what-we-c...
When visa and other payment processors wield far too much market share power and can bully platforms to take away consumer choice.
Ain't capitalism great?
Profit is the point, not us. Never us.
Sure, you can reduce the issue to something as simple as 'let us have our porn you censor happy, greedy, cowardly fucks!', but it's not necessarily about that. Well, not 'just' that, bc it partly is, let's not get things twisted.
But the real issue is, like I said above, outside entities who have no business other than to literally process payments for the consumer, who, in theory, should be the ones in charge, dictating what's on the market and what choices consumers can make about it.
I mean, you also have morally 'holier than thou' 'activists' too, but... let's be real. Self harm is something humans LOVE before wondering why they're bleeding so bad even as they keep hurting themselves.
You'd think ppl would've learned that fiction is fiction and is perfectly healthy and a good way to keep ppl from doing the crazy shit weirdos are forever screaming about... but... we never fucking learn... Or rather, we have the collective attention span of goldfish and can rationalize anything to avoid taking accountability or blame something else.
Itch doesn't care about its customers or creators, at least not more than its own hide. It's that simple.
It'll keep sucking off visa with a smile on its face until its stomach gets inflated before asking 'please sir, can I have some more?'
I am a game developer and I plan to put my game on itch.io. However, in this situation, I have to think about whether I should open my own game store and support Bitcoin payment and other transactions. Should I stop developing the game for a while? PS. Sorry for my English because it is not my native language.
I wouldn't stop developing your game, you can't let the moment stop a long term goal. I would still post to itch and run your own game store if/when possible. Unless your game is adult themed it is almost never going to be taken down don't let fear mongering deter your goal. This is unfortunate times due to groups like collective shout and the control payment processors have over everyone, itchio is just as weak to their whims as the users to the policies itchio has to put in place now. But yeah if you can avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.
The question is. Is there any like "official petition" somewhere ? Outside of boycotting itch it's not like we have a real way of attacking mastercard and most payment methods... Or maybe we do ? I should look into it to see if I can boycott the payment methods in some way. It'll be abyssmaly small for them even if we all were to stop using them but a step in the right direction is a step I guess...
Fuck... art can never take a break can it...
Boycotting itchio empowers groups like collective shout even more, you show that them weaponizing payment processors can take down any storefront they deem to have content they don't see as appropriate.
Unfortunately going after payment processors is hard, it will take major law changes to break up the duology or create restrictions to what payments they must accept or having another big contender like crypto which I'm not a big fan of but does eliminate the control the big payment processors have over what people are allowed to buy.
Yeah I agree. Itch is in a tough spot they most likely are mad to be in too hence why it was a better idea to go look upward in the chain of problems. I wasn't trying to imply boycotting Itch would be a good idea; quite the contrary. Crypto is not a go too I'd enjoy either... Found this link to petitions that allready has quite a few participants.
Here is the link for thoses that missed it.
https://stop-paypros.neocities.org/
We need to go after Collective Shout and the payment processors in this case. They're overstepping here, not the storefronts. Steam and itch can't really do much if the threat is "do this or you can't sell anything on your platform anymore", other than pivot to crypto which the vast majority of customers are not gonna do.
In the US, there's the "Fair Access to Banking Act".
There's also this petition which everyone can sign: https://www.change.org/p/tell-mastercard-visa-activist-groups-stop-controlling-w..
Here's a link with two specifics to the US and one for Canada.
https://stop-paypros.neocities.org/
Protecting the majority by smothering the minority in the name of nothing but money. Itchio has come a long long way from what it used to mean, and I couldn't mean that in a worse way. I'll absolutely not be doing any transactions on the platform without a restoration of this deeply disturbing moral policing.
Thanks for reaching out, and sorry for the inconvenience.
🔗 https://www.patreon.com/afterchoices
Like you, I'm still waiting to hear back from itch.io. It’s really unfair to be taken down overnight without warning.
I can sympathize with itch.io that they are in a uncomfortable position and a victim of disgusting religious zealot culture warriors. However, the lack of adequate communication on social media about the situation is not acceptable - and it is alarming that in the few communications itch.io has put out, it has not pushed back against the injustice of this, relayed sympathy with the artists and devs affected by this pressure campaign, and committed to doing all it legally can to resist the Puritan bigots that are attacking this website and its users.
Why is itch bending like a good boy to that shit??? They didn't even tried fight back what an embarrassement that you don't even fight for your own side
And why the damn are random religious NPCs sticking their nose always everywhere thinking what they do is always the right thing even when it's not their damn business I'm so sick of this shit I can't even enjoy fucking gooner games.
Those Mfs can't even keep up to their own rules from their own Religion but freaking judge me and take that joy away when I enjoy some meat clapping with 2D people when in reality theirselves and their fucking Sons and daughters etc. are way worse in real life then any shit I saw in fiction
Damit fix this shit itch
As a game developer who is working on a very clearly adult game (No porn, no explicit sexual content) that contains profanity, numerous horror elements, fantasy drinking, gambling, kidnapping, implied torture, character death and many other adult situations, I see that I will not be able to post it here now, once the demo is ready. Which is a damn shame, because adult content goes far beyond explicit sex and broadly encompasses anything that could be considered psychological, horror, or simply not being of a child-friendly nature. We do not live during the prohibition, this is fucking Orwellian. There's not a damn thing wrong with porn, sex, horror, or sensitive topics that might offend certain individuals. This kind of censorship is beyond gross and entirely uncalled-for. I don't give a shit if it's Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Discover, PayPal, Skrill, Moneybookers, or any other payment processor that's being a pussy. It's because Collective Shout might as well drag everyone back to the fucking Crusades, or decide that women cannot flash an ankle in a game without someone catching the vapors. Shit like this needs to stop immediately.
I have a question for the Itch management.
As far as I can see the payment systems' demand was either unofficial, or the notification protocol was violated. In both cases, the actions of the payment systems should be regarded as pressure from a monopolist in matters that are not within their competence (+ many other violations).
I assume that a tactical decision to urgently deindex makes sense, but only if you want to buy time and turn the situation in your favor. But I see the removal of games, from which I draw a very sad conclusion.
In addition, Itch has always positioned itself not as a store, but as a community. Maybe these are just beautiful words and marketing populism to lure the audience. So tell me, if we are a community, then maybe it's worth it for the Itch management to go for an international court with сollective appeal? We as a community, with our religious and cultural preferences, do not want to be interfered with and forced to give up our identity. This is a matter of our survival as a community. And, by the way, a very tolerant community, where individuals, creators and ppls fantasies are respected. This is our religion. And we are free people who have the right to do so. And we also have the right to be protected.
I want to see a transparent answer from Itch: Is this just a store, or are we a community after all? And if it's about community, then provide a link to sign a сollective appeal to the court. I think we are ready to defend our ideals.
Trust has definitely been undermined, and it will take years to justify today's mockery of creators. And fighting in court will be difficult, but it's worth it. Because this will define what Itch is for.
I want to add a few more emotional words. I was truly shocked by these events. I consider myself a progressive person, and these activists with incomprehensible and alien morality from the country of far away past years want to turn the sexual revolution back. Where is their tolerance for other people's work, for other people's feelings and even fantasies. FANTASY! Damn, these people are simply at the level of monkeys in terms of understanding the line between reality and fantasy. What can we talk about next? Ban entry to itch from Australia if such untolerant people live there. No Australian = no problem, mb?
I also want to talk about the consequences. Maybe someone has heard of social psychology and the like.. Well, it took more than 15 years to bring the gaming porn industry out of the darknet and pirate sites. People just began to believe that they can not be ashamed of their sexual desires. To have comfort in selling and buying like all normal ppl do. Just gave up pirate sites who simply steal developers content, hack into the code, make changes to intellectual property at their discretion, and distribute it (and sometimes even profit from it by selling or collecting donations for publication). And returning to these conditions again is terrible. Developers will be unprotected again. Itch, you gave us hope with your sermons about the community, and now we have this...
I really want to be heard and properly explained whether my hopes were not in vain.
The removal of games is unfortunate, but I have not seen any concrete evidence that people have lost access to their purchased content. To the contrary, several people have shown me screenshots of accessible downloads of removed games from the platform. Even a few creators have acknowledged that the deindexed games are still purchaseable, and those games removed can still be installed if you had purchased the game. https://x.com/letsmaybeLP92/status/1948544883410829370 This thread shows that banned/removed games from this purge still have download files, while creators can and have removed files on their own accord in the past.
This feels exactly like the '90s all over again when the media wouldn't STFU about how "violence in video games is harmful to children". Also similar to the situation in the '80s when Tipper Gore (Al Gore's wife) and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) went in front of Congress and convinced record labels to slap those idiotic "Parental Advisory Explicit Content" labels on album covers. If something is offensive but not illegal, it should be allowed to be accessed. Do I like the content that was in games like "No Mercy"? No, but it isn't illegal to depict these actions in a fictional manner. Let the market decide what is and isn't acceptable, not companies, ESPECIALLY those that are having ever-increasing control over our daily lives due to us not relying on cash transactions anymore.
Btw before all starts talking about VISA and Mastercard and Paypal having a monopoly. The only reason they have a monopoly is because of KYC and AML that the GOVERNMENT has mandated. So they would NOT have a monopoly if it was not for the government. This is all big governments fault. Please don't ask for more regulation, we need less and we would not have this problem.
Itch.io isn't obligated to offer anyone a platform; no one has any inherent right to upload whatever content they want onto itch.io. I interpret the intended message to refer to ability, I just tend to be easily irritated when ideas of "rights" and "censorship" are mentioned erroneously.
This isn't so much the fault of itch.io as much as it is payment processors and the lobbyists pressuring them to punish entities for transacting in a "problematic" manner. If anything, this is where rights and censorship should be a concern. If an artist is commissioned by a customer to draw pornographic content, and the two exchange product and payment and respect each other throughout the transaction, there is no issue and it's not the intermediaries' business so long as it isn't actively breaking any moral or legal boundary.
The difference between itch.io deciding something is not acceptable to host, and a payment processor blocking transactions they deem unacceptable, is the fact that unlike itch.io, said payment processors have effectively monopolized all ability to digitally exchange value, whereas you have many other options for distributing your art besides itch.io; when they dictate what transactions are considered acceptable, they in essence can make any transactions they don't like "illegal" despite not technically having the authority to enforce any law.
Capitalism fucking sucks, reason #99999...
And no, cryptocurrency is not a solution and anyone attempting to entertain the idea of using it should be laughed out of the room.
>cryptocurrency is not a solution
care to elaborate or are you just going to use phrases you saw on the internet?
>itch.io isnt obligated to offer anyone a platform
literally no one opposes this. who are you arguing against? they are forced to remove the content you know?
>capitalism fucking sucks
yes it fucking sucks when you don't want to explore other options of payment.
tell me, why itch.io isn't obligated to offer anyone a platform but visa and mastercard have to let everybody make use of their product?
Update: https://itch.io/docs/creators/faq#is-adult-content-allowed
Well.. 🤔 hm.. it's total *******😒
____________________________
The following is a non-exhaustive list of prohibited themes present in card processing networks. We are unable to support the sale of any works containing these topics:
____________________________
... we have.. what we have 😔
Farewell furries, horse dildos and sexy stepmothers.. RIP
So basically, no Greek Mythological games that stays accurate to the mythology, for example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hera
its one thing to remove sexual material depicting kids, yet another to remove fictional content depicting adults.
In a sidenote, things get quite funny when Itch bans content that are still up on GoG/Steam.
Try these: https://action.aclu.org/petition/mastercard-sex-work-work-end-your-unjust-policy https://www.change.org/p/tell-mastercard-visa-activist-groups-stop-controlling-w...
And other posts seem to be listing mastercard phone numbers to call, I wouldn't know if these numbers are accurate but that might be worth a try as well.
Would itch consider switching to a different payment processor? While companies like Stripe are the biggest, there are many others out there that came about after censorship groups pressured payment processors into going after others in the past, e.g., electronic repair communities, and communities developing 3rd party schematics.
Given how much more effective these censorship companies are becoming, my may be best to just move to a payment processor whose business model is to never ban any legal content. If itch sticks with their current payment processor, they will only continue to gradually censor more content and this situation will become a regularly occurring event.
While the delisting of adult games doesn’t directly affect any of my current itch.io projects, it sets a disastrous and worrying precedent. If games can be removed from itch.io without warning because a far-right puritan group and a couple of payment processors applied pressure, then every game is in potential danger. This is censorship of art and is an attack on the livelihoods of itch.io’s creators. And there’s no reason to think that the far-right group would stop here. Games with LGBT themes, or swear words, or political satire, could easily be the next targets.
I urge itch.io to relist the games and to not cave to the pressure of far-right groups and payment processors. Payment processors should not be in the business of censorship; their purpose is to process payments.
If you have the time, contact the payment processors and let them know your opinion on their censorship. If you’re in America, contact Mastercard with this link and contact Visa with this link.
– Mt. Penguin Monster
In these cases, it is not the main credit card companies that are causing these issue, instead, it is mainly the back end payment processors who will facilitate a credit card transaction. For example, Stripe has a history of dropping many people, including numerous content creators, artists, and various donationware companies, e.g., electronics companies like Apple, pressuring a payment processor to ban a developer who is using them to accept donations for a board view applications tailored to 3rd party repair of products made by those companies. Since nothing they are doing is illegal, they can't get the software banned, thus they go after income sources instead.
Anyway what collective shout did is just the beginning, and given how fast steam and itch gave in, they will now double down. Bit by bit they will chip away at what content in allowed, until itch will ban everything more violent than Mario Cart.
Keep in mind that collective shout tried to use a different method to get the game Detroit: Become Human banned, though that was before they utilized the payment processor route.
The censorship groups of the past that tried to ban things like Dungeons And Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and many other things,never fully disappeared, and the success of collective shout, will effectively give them all a roadmap to exploit.
If there is no resistance to this, then eventually every prude will effectively have veto authority on all content on itch, steam, and many other platforms.
To be quite honest even if the current state of affairs is rectified I'll be skeptical of using Itch as a platform going forward. The lack of transparency with the people who make the website worth using and the willingness to hold their livelihoods in limbo for imagined violations invented to suit payment processors shows which side Itch is on. Even if their hands were fully tied, there's a certain degree of dignity they could have afforded people, and they haven't put in the work.
I think the point of them being more vague also allowed for NSFW/questionable content games to be able to come to Itch.io in the first place. Valve/Steam has been much more transparent per se, but also stricter on adult games (until very recently). But they also have that age verification measure, which I am not sure if itch.io has properly implemented sitewide. If someone like Valve/Steam has to mass delist games to comply, itch.io would have been suicidal to act like the hero for NSFW content