Mastercard Denies Pressuring Steam To Censor 'NSFW' Games
kotaku.com
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The company said it only requires standards 'based on the rule of law'

Updated: 8/1/2025 4:18 p.m. ET: In a statement to Kotaku, a spokesperson for Valve said that while Mastercard did not communicate with it directly, concerns did come through payment processor and banking intermediaries. They said payment processors rejected Valve’s current guidelines for moderating illegal content on Steam, citing Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7.

“Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,” Valve’s statement sent over email to Kotaku reads. “Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks.  Payment processors communicated this with Valve, and we replied by outlining Steam’s policy since 2018 of attempting to distribute games that are legal for distribution.  Payment processors rejected this, and specifically cited Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7 and risk to the Mastercard brand.”

Rule 5.12.7 states, “A Merchant must not submit to its Acquirer, and a Customer must not submit to the Interchange System, any Transaction that is illegal, or in the sole discretion of the Corporation, may damage the goodwill of the Corporation or reflect negatively on the Marks.”

It goes on, “The sale of a product or service, including an image, which is patently offensive and lacks serious artistic value (such as, by way of example and not limitation, images of nonconsensual sexual behavior, sexual exploitation of a minor, nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part, and bestiality), or any other material that the Corporation deems unacceptable to sell in connection with a Mark.”

Violations of rule 5.12.7 can result in fines, audits, or companies being dropped by the payment processors.

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1351M

I love how this has damaged Mastercards brand much more than anything Valve sells. MC would rather pressure Valve for selling NSFW games, than clean up billionaires buying and trafficking children.

Luouth
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241M

Hey, Mastercard don’t deal with those transactions. Too traceable! Diplomatic narcotics and crypto have less of a paper trail…

Barbecue Cowboy
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31M

Mastercard is living the corporate dream. They’ve colluded their way to a near monopoly and don’t have to care about the value of their brand. They just have to be invisible enough that they don’t pull heat for something or other from various governments.

Luouth
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01M

deleted by creator

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3061M

“Nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part” includes just about every fighter or shooter game. They really want to have COD delisted over this?

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1321M

To be fair, that would be fucking hilarious.

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241M

Some kid on COD said he fucked my mom and then he called me a faggot.

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11M

A ‘removed’?

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231M

Unironically, COD getting delisted would probably get mainstream media coverage and legitimate outrage from people who “don’t play video games” but actually do.

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611M

you’re missing some context in that.

“The sale of a product… which is patently offensive and lacks serious artistic value… (such as… images of… Nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part”

insert joke about COD lacking artistic value, but clearly there is more to COD than just body mutilation.

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1781M

“Patently offensive” and “lacks serious artistic value” are entirely subjective classifications. With those restrictions, any game with country music should be delisted.

bryndos
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Man, if i could get a patent on offending people . . . money, money money, win win win.

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51M

Wagner and Mahler: Listen, we have some really badass tracks. Use them! And nobody would dare to call this music “not art enough”.

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01M

Artistic value is subjective.

That clause shouldn’t hold up in a court.

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11M

Also most movies, tv shows, books, every single religious text

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1581M

Brilliant, just make your rules vague and force everyone else down the chain to self-censor. Surely this will result in the best outcome.

Fucking mastercard

MentalEdge
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It’s not even that vague.

Valve basically said: “we are not doing anything illegal”.

To which mastercard responded: “yeah but you’re making us look bad, so tough”.

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removed by mod

Annoyed_🦀
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Their rules seem to just follow the law

Whose law? The US? UK? Netherlands? Japan? Or Singapore?

That’s why it’s vague.

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191M

It’s much worse than that. How they word it is “if it may damage the public image of mastercard”. And they don’t review the content, they review the means used to prevent the damage to their brand.

So valve doesn’t even need to have anything that actually damage mastercard brand, it just need to be that mastercard is not comfortable enough with the measures used to prevent it.

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91M

Like buying anything would actually damage the brand of Mastercard. It’s such a nonsensical excuse that I’m surprised nobody laughed in their face.

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-11M

Yeah, right up until assholes start posting “MASTERCARD SELLS SMUT INCEST HENTAI GAMES” on TikTok. Then it’s a problem, and MasterCard considers that damaging to the brand.

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41M

There’s really nothing stopping anyone from posting that right now. That’s the quality level of most of the online content nowadays.

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01M

That’s my point. They are posting it, and MasterCard does consider it harmful to the brand, so now we’re here.

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11M

Except that’s entirely false. Even now they are pretending they do nothing, it’s the intermediaries who force things.

Mastercard sells absolutely nothing. And they have no responsibility for anything sold. And no one ever thought it was mastercard selling or even allowing to sell illegal things.

In fact, most people will believe no one sound of mind will buy something illegal with a credit card because mastercard and the likes will give your identity to the police.

So it’s not about illegal things, and it’s not about their image.

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221M

Up to the third comma, yes, but all the rest seems to go beyond that pretty arbitrarily.

When they say anything that “may damage the goodwill of the corporation”, and qualify that with “in the sole discretion of the Corporation” that just means “anything we don’t want to be associated with, and we will be the judge of that”.

That’s what makes it so vague, how is a Merchant or an Acquirer supposed to know what Mastercard might find damaging to the goodwill? They have to guess, or use trial and error*. Most will just err on the side of caution, which means customers get blocked from even more purchases, just to be safe.

* Or talk to Mastercard, which Valve apparently tried, but they wouldn’t respond.

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When they say anything that “may damage the goodwill of the corporation”,

Looks like MasterCard is going to have to ban MasterCard because of all the damage they’ve done to MasterCard’s goodwill.

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381M

If they just wanted to follow the law, they could have left it at “don’t sell anything illegal” without all the extra “brand damage” nonsense.

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51M

No, the rules don’t (that’s why it’s been fine for 7 years), and you used a derogatory term so cry harder about your downvotes.

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01M

please sir may I have another

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1791M

nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part

I feel like a strict reading of this rule would also put a lot of fighting games, shooters, horror games etc in the not approved category

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1231M

I think some christian items could also be affected, like the bible. Cane and Able, crucifixion, etc are all in that book

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521M

Also incest

rautapekoni
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471M

And circumcision of children.

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201M

Good vibes all around

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121M

No cell phone, no internet. Just people being people. Really living in the moment. Really knowing what its like to be human.

The good old days.

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61M

Also encouraging your neighbors to rape your own daughters instead of the visiting angels.

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21M

Lmao I really need to read the bible in full on day

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101M

Mutilation seems to imply more than just violence or killing. For example, Days Gone has a scene very early that involves flaying someone’s skin off, I would imagine that type of stuff would qualify.

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111M

Wouldn’t that have artistic value? Since that adds to the story.

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-21M

They didnt have to show it so explicitly, although I’m not sure simply implying mutilation would qualify too.

Its hard to say what the right level of shock for that kind of thing is, it probably should just be restricted to adults only.

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21M

That’s the thing, who defines what artistic value is? I’ve seen some pretty creative pornography over the years. Is that artistic value? I’ve seen very creative depictions of violence and uses of profanity too. What about on the other end of the spectrum, Is Tetris have artistic value?

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21M

Tetris is artsy as shit, especially with that kickass score, Korobeiniki.

For a better example, maybe contrast it against the more generic marvel movies.

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21M

I was trying to keep it limited to gaming and Tetris was the most basic one that came to mind. How about Pong?

Also not knocking these games at all. Just trying to make a point.

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01M

I think pornography is an “art” the same way gastronomy is an “art”. Both serve a simple function: one to arouse you, the other to be enjoyable food to eat.

I think the more general definition of art is something that generates more complex emotions and thoughts.

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51M

That’s true but anyone agaimt its inclusion would just say it doesn’t add to the story. “Clearly it detracts from the story, as the player would be distracted by the horrific event instead of enjoying the game” -some hypothetical mastercard Exec, right before fining Valve.

It’s not a court, so there’s no appeal from that, unless there’s an appeal granted by the contract itself.

nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part

All action movies should removed from streaming.

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311M

Right now in Rimworld I am sending child soldiers to bring more ammo to the mortars that are busy pounding away at some primitive tribesmen that are angry at me for dumping a few tons of toxic waste on their home or something.

Those that survive the mortar bombardment will be lobotomised and enslaved. If they have enough limbs remaining to be useful to me I will probably use a few of them as slaves and the rest will be sold to the empire. Any that the empire don’t want will be harvested for organs and dumped in a corpse pit.

I didn’t ask if the tribesmen consented to any of this.

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31M

Is there really a game that allows you to do all that??!!

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21M

Absolutely and more! We also have psychic powers, murder robots, friendly murder robots, vampires, genetic engineering, organized religion, semi-sentient plants, space ships, cannibals, space drugs, drugs in space, rabid woodland critters, eldritch horrors beyond comprehension, giant bugs, orbital bombardments, and also the looming threat of starvation as you watch all that you built burn. That’s all before we talk about things that the modding community has brought to the game.

To be clear, the RimWorld doesn’t force you into any one play style, and most of the things listed above can be disabled or avoided if that’s not your jam. At its core the game is trying to tell a story, it’s up to the player to help shape that story. It’s absolutely fantastic; quite literally the best $30 I’ve ever spent on a game (if we’re talking hours played, I’m just about to turn the corner on 2,000 hours (in the spirit of disclosure, a chunk of that is also spent making mods for the game)).

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51M

I keep trying to learn rimworld. I drop out of most tutorials some time after building a refrigerator. Any recommendations on how to get further along? This is a game I’ll love once I know it but I’m not there yet.

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11M

Lower difficulty, in all present difficulty options the raid strength is determined largely based on your colony wealth. If you have massive towers of gold then expect big raids.

Even flooring adds up to wealth, massive rooms with carpets can become a non insignificant value. This isn’t to say don’t build them, but you should make sure a reasonable amount of your total wealth is invested into warfare. It can be quite easy to hoard things that are useless to you but have a fair bit of value to them.

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11M

I didn’t know that. Thank you!

Yeather
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61M

Do the relaxed scenario girl and a lower difficulty for an easier time. Drop in a year round grow area, and mountainous area to mine a base into the mountain.

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21M

Thanks for the tips. I have been using that storyteller and easy mode but picking a random temperate forest.

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61M

Honestly, that’s pretty tame for Rimworld.

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111M

Oh did you not read the years and years of actions religious groups did to snuff games and movies?

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121M

Diablo 2, corpse explosion!

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5
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1M

Rust, just rust in general.

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101M

Mortal Kombat is gone.

furry toaster
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131M

it would put circumcision too, but the USA doesn’t care

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1961M

I don’t think they realize how much worse their brands look now, after starting all this shit…

Fluffy Kitty Cat
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691M

I want to cancel ally visa and mastercard cards and never give them my business ever again after this

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201M

This might just be my insomnia talking, but I thought a reasonable idea might be to call and reduce the available credit by however much is comfortable. For me, it would be fairly reasonable to reduce it by 50%. I assume they use some kind of magicians handshake to value their company based on how much potential credit is out there… Maybe it’d do nothing though. Anyone know?

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131M

I am not a financial guru so hopefully someone will correct me if I’m wrong about this, but your credit score is affected positively the more available credit you have. So by voluntarily lowering your available credit, you’re actually hurting yourself way more than the card companies. At least I think that’s how it works, or rather one of many factors.

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221M

This will do nothing except hurt your own credit score as your credit utilization will be higher

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11M

That will also destroy your credit rating

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71M

Amex is still reasonably good.

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71M

Amex charges up to 14% of every transaction. If a place takes it, they are almost always ripping you off.

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01M

Amex typically charges between 1.7 and 3.3%.

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21M

As someone who does not take amex they want to charge me between 7% and 14%. Maybe if I did more sales they would not charge as much, but the reason amex is not taken in as many places as mastercard or visa is the 7% to 14%.

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Weird. All the info I can find shows a maximum merchant fee of 3.3% + $0.10 per transaction.

Even this article about the topic says the reason is because amex charges .5% - 1% more. Not 6-13% more.

Maybe it varies by country? Are you in NoAm or somewhere else?

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11M

I am in Canada, and amex is famous for charging way too much in merchant fees. They also charge it under a silly system based on the type of card used (the more “elite” the more the merchant pays).

@[email protected]
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391M

Does it really matter when you’re a duopoly and equally bad as one another?

Fluffy Kitty Cat
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261M

Until they’re not, and any competition now has the NSFW and LGBT markets to themselves

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11M

Politics_IRL

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911M

Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network.

As Valve correctly points out, this is a blatant & outright lie. They have cut off any number of legal entities over pressure from politicians or groups. Now they have to own it.

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221M

I mean, their own Rule 5.12.7 has that “or” in it, which includes transactions that are fully lawful but “may damage the goodwill of the corporation”.

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01M

You will find such language pretty much everywhere. And there are reasons for it. A good example are certain drugs that are technically not illegal. Because they have not been officially classified yet.

That used to be a thing here in Sweden some time ago, where they’d just change some little compound and could technically, legally sell it online until it was deemed otherwise. Because it’s now technically a new formula. Once it was classified, they just repeated the proceas.

MasterCard might not want to be seen as an enabler in the drug trade. So while it’s technically legal. They don’t want anything to do with it. And would like the option to take action.

And according to the articles. It’s not MasterCard pointing to that regulation, but the processors. As MasterCard notes. They’re not a bank, they’re not processing your payment. They just provide the technology to do so.

Furthermore. I’m quite amazed that people seem to think Valve is this really good company that we can all trust and take their word on. Valve says one thing. MasterCard says another. I wouldn’t take either one of them on just their word. Better to take a step back, and see how it develops so you don’t make yourself a useful idiot.

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791M

If nobody takes responsibility, then they should all just agree that this was a big misunderstanding and reinstate the titty games.

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901M

Ok furry artists, you know what to do, I wanna see the filthiest Visa x MasterCard art you can dream off. Payment process me baby

puppycat (she/her)
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1271M

not furry but someone already made mastercard-chan and visa-kun

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321M

Thats hot. And I am going to assume this is canon from now on.

Novaling
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Is this Merryweathery? I swear he’s always the one doing these gijinkas (Internet Explorer-chan, Twitter-chan, Switch-chan, etc.)

Edit: Just me or does Mastercard-chan have a bulge? Cause like… yes please…

puppycat (she/her)
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it is!

Novaling
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21M

Figured lol, he’s the usual culprit for any cute gijinka of a current trend.

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61M

No, seriously, why don’t we bombard every customer service line with payment processor themed smut?

Phone sex,

Sex gifs,

Those geeek sculptures,

Etc

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-31M

no don’t do it

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111M

“Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,"

Well now how did you make that request?

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381M

So much fucking censorship and agenda-pushing on the internet.

It makes me sick how many useful idiots are being herded like sheep just to satisfy those with more money than them.

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We have seen the same behavior out of the credit card companies before. Its pretty clear that they do pressure companies to remove content they don’t approve of. Its censorship and its legal since the companies are not the government. They are just tied in at a high level to the banking industry. Its a good example of how lack of regulation harms both creators and consumers.

It lets a bunch of poorly adjusted individuals force their personal mental problems on us all.

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1M

Taking away our freedom of speech is something to go to war over.

If this trend of giving all the government power to companies continues, well, let’s just say I’m glad we have the 2nd amendment to fight back against tyranny.

I’m not going to live in a reddit cuck-world without a fight.

ikt
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so it was about potential brand damage that doesn’t exist? and/or has this actually brand damaged visa and mastercard more than ignoring collective shout?

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What I see is Mastercard hiding behind their generic rules for processors and being fine with the processors taking unilateral action that could damage their brand.

Mastercard should demand they rescind the decision based on a flawed interpretation of their rules since the content IS NOT ILLEGAL where Steam provides it, or drop those processors entirely due to the brand damage their unilateral decision has caused. If Mastercard lets this sit, that signals that they agree with this decision, regardless of what they say, and they should be treated as such.

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cake
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111M

Read mastercard’s actual rule that is literally in the OP. The processor’s interpretation isn’t flawed and in no way does Mastercard limit their rule to what is illegal.

The rule is so open ended and vague that it’s entirely on Mastercard (and Visa) that this shit happened.

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121M

It is intentionally vague, because companies want to be able to weasel out of any and all accountability whenever possible.

But Mastercard isn’t off the hook either way even if we accept the rules as they are currently. Before this incident, Mastercard has been starting to censor adult content in general with rules changes. To the point where there was already a petition on the ACLU site about this exact type of censorship.

https://action.aclu.org/petition/mastercard-sex-work-work-end-your-unjust-policy

Mastercard is trying to weasel their way out of this particular instance because they didn’t directly have a hand in this video game situation, even though they clearly would agree with it based on other recent changes. They’re trying to play both sides by assuming that people didn’t know they were already doing these things.

@[email protected]
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61M

What I read is that it is not about illegal content. It is about the measures taken to prevent illegal content from being sold. It’s much more devious than simple censorship.

Mike Hunt
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101M

Pirate’s life for me then

@[email protected]
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261M

Maybe the payment processors lied?

@[email protected]
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581M

Fuckers are just propagating the fury without providing a fix. Are the censored games back or not? Because right now they aren’t. Put them back and make Mastercard do something about it now that they have staged their position. Collective Shout is playing both sides.

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