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It's absurd and dystopian that payment processors get to decide what we can and can't see on the internet. That companies like Visa and Mastercard can use their enormous size to bully companies into taking stuff offline - based on the reactionary politics of a small group.

That's lead to Steam and Itch removing or de-indexing hundreds of games with adult themes, through fear that payment processors will block sales across the entire storefront. Detailed reporting here, via Wired: www.wired.com/story/steam-...

Now, understandably, some games should not be made available for sale if they are promoting particularly dangerous or hateful actions. Ban that garbage. But that definition must be up to the store, and then the law to decide, right? Not the arbitrary whims of Visa, Mastercard, or PayPal.

I appreciate that some are disappointed in how Valve and - more pointedly - Itch dealt with this situation. But Itch is a gnat compared to the payment companies. And they're threatening the site with total annihilation if they don't capitulate fast. The site simply cannot fight or protest it.