A number of adult games have recently followedSteamand itch.io platform mysteriously disappeared, rumored to be related to pressure from payment partners and credit card organizations. Under the questioning of a large number of users, Visa officials finally broke the silence and responded.
According to the player community, some users directly inquired with the customer service of credit card institutions, trying to understand the inside story of this wave of purges against Steam and itch.io adult games. Although the wave of delisting is obviously related to the intervention of financial institutions, the responses of all parties are vague.
itch.io has previously issued an official statement confirming that the removal of thousands of content from the platform stems from critical pressure from payment processing partners, and these payment institutions are under pressure from complaints from certain anti-adult content organizations.
Visa’s official reply leaked from the Reddit forum shows that although the company did not directly respond to the censorship, its position is intriguing. Visa emphasizes that its policy only prohibits illegal transactions and supports legitimate business practices – an interpretation that clearly has nothing to do with the removal of adult games, as none of the works involved violate the law.
The most critical statement in the response is the explicit denial of content censorship: “As long as the transaction is legitimate, our policy will be processed normally,” and Visa specifically pointed out that “we do not morally judge consumers’ legitimate purchases.”
This statement is subtly contradictory to the recent censorship actions encountered by Steam and itch.io. The follow-up development of the incident remains to be seen.
