Discussion First they came for the porn...

[GodisanAtheist]

...and I did not speak out because I was not a porn.

Steam's Wildly Unclear New Rules On 'Adult Content' Have Already Seen Hundreds Of Games Delisted - Kotaku

A new rule regarding payment processors has introduced a lot of uncertainty for developers

kotaku.com

Major payment processors have been throwing their weight around threatening to delist vendors is they do not censor/regulate adult content on their platforms.

This has been a thing for a while, but it seems to have really ramped up in the last few years and seems to have burst onto the scene with Steam getting strong armed into removing a whole host if adult games from its site under threat.

My understanding of what is driving this: Payment processors profit from every transaction done using their network. Courts have ruled that payment processors aren't simply innocent middle men in a transaction involving illegal content (child porn/drugs/etc) because they profit off the transaction. As a result, the payment processors are partially liable for ensuring transactions conducted on their networks do not violate the law.

This has opened up a sort of Trojan horse angle of attack, and potentially a much more dire threat to free speech in general, that a lot of folks are waking up to.

Today they come for the pr0n, tomorrow they will come for political opinions, subversive art, and the free expression of ideas.

Rage's lyrics "They don't have to burn the books just gotta remove them" is more and more prophetic by the day.

 

[Ken g6]

I saw a video posted on Reddit yesterday blaming a group called Collective Shout for this.

The post got deleted - although the comments did not - maybe because the video was made by a neo-nazi. So although Collective Shout's goals are clearly anti-free-speech, I don't know how much to blame this particular group.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I saw a video posted on Reddit yesterday blaming a group called Collective Shout for this.

The post got deleted - although the comments did not - maybe because the video was made by a neo-nazi. So although Collective Shout's goals are clearly anti-free-speech, I don't know how much to blame this particular group.

-Yes, Collective Shout seems to be the group that identified this angle of attack and began carrying out the legal campaign to enact the changes. Likely not the only ones either.

 

[gothuevos]

...and I did not speak out because I was not a porn.

Steam's Wildly Unclear New Rules On 'Adult Content' Have Already Seen Hundreds Of Games Delisted - Kotaku

A new rule regarding payment processors has introduced a lot of uncertainty for developers

kotaku.com

Major payment processors have been throwing their weight around threatening to delist vendors is they do not censor/regulate adult content on their platforms.

This has been a thing for a while, but it seems to have really ramped up in the last few years and seems to have burst onto the scene with Steam getting strong armed into removing a whole host if adult games from its site under threat.

My understanding of what is driving this: Payment processors profit from every transaction done using their network. Courts have ruled that payment processors aren't simply innocent middle men in a transaction involving illegal content (child porn/drugs/etc) because they profit off the transaction. As a result, the payment processors are partially liable for ensuring transactions conducted on their networks do not violate the law.

This has opened up a sort of Trojan horse angle of attack, and potentially a much more dire threat to free speech in general, that a lot of folks are waking up to.

Today they come for the pr0n, tomorrow they will come for political opinions, subversive art, and the free expression of ideas.

Rage's lyrics "They don't have to burn the books just gotta remove them" is more and more prophetic by the day.

"What are ya, some kind of subversive or something?"

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

...and I did not speak out because I was not a porn.

Steam's Wildly Unclear New Rules On 'Adult Content' Have Already Seen Hundreds Of Games Delisted - Kotaku

A new rule regarding payment processors has introduced a lot of uncertainty for developers

kotaku.com

Major payment processors have been throwing their weight around threatening to delist vendors is they do not censor/regulate adult content on their platforms.

This has been a thing for a while, but it seems to have really ramped up in the last few years and seems to have burst onto the scene with Steam getting strong armed into removing a whole host if adult games from its site under threat.

My understanding of what is driving this: Payment processors profit from every transaction done using their network. Courts have ruled that payment processors aren't simply innocent middle men in a transaction involving illegal content (child porn/drugs/etc) because they profit off the transaction. As a result, the payment processors are partially liable for ensuring transactions conducted on their networks do not violate the law.

This has opened up a sort of Trojan horse angle of attack, and potentially a much more dire threat to free speech in general, that a lot of folks are waking up to.

Today they come for the pr0n, tomorrow they will come for political opinions, subversive art, and the free expression of ideas.

Rage's lyrics "They don't have to burn the books just gotta remove them" is more and more prophetic by the day.

Do what the politicians do. Don't charge processing fees for transactions, just charge a 'vendor connection fee' that's variable based on the previous year's transactions. That way they aren't profiting from the transactions themselves.

Good enough for bribes, good enough for steam.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I suspect this is going to be the kind of thing that's used to push "coin" adoption. See, private transactions without any nosey processors getting in the way...

Same thing that allowed coins to become the currency of choice for drug-running etc...

 

[SteveGrabowski]

To the GOP sex is between one man and one child so it makes sense they'd have a problem with showing the act between consenting adults.