When payment processors act as judge, jury, and executioner, content moderation becomes infrastructure-level censorship.
Payment processors force Steam and Itch.io to purge content, setting off alarm bells for indie commerce and digital speech
Payment networks strong-arm Steam and Itch.io into mass removals
In July 2025, two of the world’s biggest digital game platforms—Steam and Itch.io—delisted hundreds of adult-themed titles after pressure from Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe. The move came fast and hard after an open letter from Australian anti-porn group Collective Shout demanded payment processors cut ties with platforms offering NSFW games, citing content like “sexual violence and incest.”
In a scramble to “protect core payment infrastructure,” Itch.io deindexed all adult content from search and browsing. No advance notice, no creator input, just wiped. Even games buyers had already paid for were reportedly affected (which Itch.io denies).
Steam—home to 132 million monthly users—followed suit days later. The reason? Payment access. As Valve said: “Loss of payment methods would prevent customers from being able to purchase other titles and game content on Steam.”
The gamer revolt and the fight for ecommerce expression
The backlash was instant. Gamers launched a grassroots campaign to jam Visa and Mastercard’s customer service lines, using Reddit and Bluesky to coordinate mass call-ins and emails. The goal: gum up the works until executives feel the heat. A Change.org petition gathered over 147,000 signatures in under two weeks.
Elon Musk chimed in on X: “Bravo.” He’s now pushing to fast-track payments on his own platform.
Visa and Mastercard, meanwhile, tried to play neutral. Visa’s boilerplate response? “We do not make moral judgments on legal purchases made by consumers.” Except they do—when PR heat is high and NGOs are watching.
What ecommerce operators need to learn—fast
This isn’t just a gamer issue. It’s a preview of how payment processors can—and will—police entire markets based on vague “risk” policies:
- If you sell digital goods, art, or creator content: your SKUs are only as secure as your processor’s PR threshold
- If your checkout fails, your store fails: don’t let one or two payment gateways hold your entire business hostage
- If your creators get blindsided, your reputation tanks: communicate, stand firm, build contingencies
Visa and Mastercard want to dominate the AI-to-checkout layer, but their recent moves show how brittle and politicized that dominance can be. What happens when they target cannabis, or crypto, or edgy fashion brands? Operators better have answers.
The endgame isn’t protection—it’s control
Platforms caved not because the content was illegal—but because Mastercard said jump.
This is an example of commerce censorship at the infrastructure level, and it’s been happening for a while for businesses marked by the corpocracy as personae non gratae. It’s only now that the mainstream is really noticing.
Visa and Mastercard aren’t just processing payments. They’re acting as unelected regulators—without transparency, without appeal. And because getting licensed to process payments is so capital- and compliance-intensive, they face almost no real competition.
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