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.
The new rule appears on Steam’s onboarding page for developers. I’ve verified that it was recently added using the ole Internet Wayback Machine.
Valve’s policy towards “adult content” and what separates this from pornography has always been rather foggy, partly because humans in general struggle to agree on what “adult” and “pornography” really mean. For a time, the platform holders tried to enforce a no-porno approach. This came to a head – probably not the best choice of words, so let’s swiftly and humorously add “of steam” – in 2018, when Valve issued a bunch of rather arbitrary warnings to various developers and publishers, demanding that they edit “pornographic content” out of games that ranged from horror sex comedies to puzzlers that are arguably far less raunchy than, say, the wham-bam scenes in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Following an outcry, Valve announced that they were stepping back from the enforcement of definitions around porn and adult content, and would instead focus on equipping players with tools and systems for labelling and filtering anything they’d rather not see. The current Steam rules require adult content to be “appropriately labeled and age-gated”. Still, Valve continue to intervene to remove “adult” games that, for example, glorify rape, in line with Steam’s other prohibitions against hate speech, games that simulate the exploitation of children, nude or sexually explicit images of real people, and any content “that is patently offensive or intended to shock or disgust viewers”.
Handing over authority to banks, ISPs and other payment providers may result in further arbitrary rejections of games, given that companies such as Stripe, Mastercard and Paypal are in the habit of nudging sites like Patreon to crack down on “NSFW” or “adult” material.
In particular, this could lead to a stifling of games that are in any way non-conforming, particularly given the current climate of repression in Valve’s home country, the USA. I know about the rule change thanks to Youtuber and self-described former game developer NoahFuel Gaming, who has posted on Bluesky about the potential fallout for projects the banks and financial corporations consider “adult” because they deviate from reactionary framings of sex and gender. As the Youtuber writes: “Queer content gets flagged as ‘explicit’ even when it’s PG. A trans dev making a personal story? ‘Too controversial.’ A surreal queer VN? ‘Sexualized.’ Financial deplatforming in action.”
I’ll ask Valve if they’d like to comment on all this.
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