Just a little over a week after Steam updated its guidelines to prohibit content that “may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks,” specifically adult-only content, and days after itch.io shared that it, too, had removed games that would put it in direct conflict with its payment processors, gamers around the world are banding together to try and change the circumstances.
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Over on Reddit’s r/Steam sub, players are working directly to contact Visa, a payment processor that has put the company in such a predicament in the first place. By using Visa’s dedicated contact form and a carefully worded message, they are hoping that things will change soon.
Dear Visa Customer Service Team,
I am concerned customer about Visa’s recent efforts to censor adult content on prominent online game retailers, specifically the platforms Steam and Itch.io. As a long-time Visa customer, I see this as a massive overreach into controlling what entirely legal actions/purchases customers are allowed to put their money towards. Visa has no right to dictate my or other consumers’ behavior or to pressure free markets to comply with vague, morally-grounded rules enforced by payment processing providers. Unless these Draconian impositions are not reversed, I will have no choice but to stop dealing with Visa and instead swap to competing companies not directly involved in censorship efforts, namely Discover and AmericanExpress.
For its part, Visa has already begun responding to gamers, though its response is nowhere near satisfactory, according to those involved in the efforts.
Visa Says It’s “Committed To Protecting Legal Commerce”
In a response shared by one gamer, Visa noted it “explicitly” prohibits illegal activity, while also sharing a commitment to “protecting legal commerce.” More specifically, the payment company noted that, “If a transaction is legal, our policy is to process the transaction. We do not make moral judgments on legal purchases made by consumers.”
“That is, in fact, an actual legitimate lie,” one user wrote in response.
Given the rapidly developing circumstances surrounding this new issue, only time will tell as to what the resolution is. At the very least, those most impacted are doing their best to help reverse course.
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