This got community noted for good reason. Fucking liars.
"Both Steam and Itch have stated their removal of adult content came from pressure by payment processors, including Mastercard.
Furthermore, Mastercard and other payment processors have a documented history of refusing service to Japanese retailers over legal adult content.
https://otakuusamagazine.com/visa-and-mastercard-refuse-to-work-with-another-doujinshi-retailer/"
"Clarifying recent headlines on gaming content"
https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/press/2025/august/clarifying-recent-headlines-on-gaming-content.html
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"Come on! Trust us! Why would we do that? Trust us, bro!" 🤣
@Dan_Ramos @sj_zero Maybe.
VISA is bigger than Mastercard, and the specifics we've been hearing especially in Japan are about the former. Only takes one since a company has to use both networks.
Both are implicated.
@Dan_Ramos @sj_zero Through cutouts for what's that worth (not much since this is an auto-conspiracy):
"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.'"
Mastercard's damage control statement of course shows that reputation risk goes both ways.
"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.'"
https://kotaku.com/mastercard-denies-pressuring-steam-to-censor-nsfw-games-2000614393
They ultimately lied no matter how you cut it.
@Dan_Ramos @sj_zero Someone is lying, very possibly two someones.
Valve has no reason to lie, this is costing them money, escalating to horror games, there's no end in sight, and they've got a good record for playing straight, right?
We can't and won't be able to tell if Mastercard is lying, because whatever the payment processors and merchant banks below them say, we know VISA is full SJW so ... hmmm, there's a niche here for some entities in this tier to go Mastercard only if it's not lying.
Would be politically fraught, but something to think about.
But that's part of my thinking we won't be able to tell if Mastercard is still cockblocking Valve unless we see a parallel set up like the above happen, "this game can only be bought through Mastercard." Hmmm, and VISA could still play the reputational damage card....
An Official split like we have now opens legal and political options, but Trump 2.0 and Red states in general have their hands full, and Officially aren't entirely in favor of all the media being blocked.
But the more this auto-conspiracy overreaches, the more it resembles full on debanking like Trump's wife and many others experienced, the more it'll feed into this political block's fighting against censorship and worse.
Albeit it appears a censorship effort is spinning up by Zionists who are responding to lying Hamas etc. propaganda, some of which is not lies vs. different views on the morality of what's happening in Gaza.
(By the old ways, Israel is fully justified in killing every living thing there after their refusal to surrender after defeat. See Japan eighty years ago in four and seven days.... Which would have been followed by liberal use of nukes for the invasions.)