I have spent some thought on the situation with itch.io, the payment processors, and Collective Shout, and what is happening mystifies me. 

It is fairly clear to me that the payment processors gave itch.io an ultimatum, and itch.io had to do something immediately or lose their access to the payment processors. But what did that ultimatum entail? It must have been something like "you must guarantee right now that no games with content X are available on itch.io," and the only way for itch.io to meet that demand was to turn off the whole category of games which potentially could contain content X, while they were going to investigate which specific games they had to remove.

How did all of this start? Collective Shout demanded from VISA, Mastercard, and Paypal that they would stop providing their services to itch.io. Why the hell decided the payment processors, which are US-based companies, to give in to the demands of Collective Shout, an Australian collective of hypocritical puritans? Why didn't they just tell Collective Shout to go **** themselves? Collective Shout has no power over these companies. Giving in to them means that Collective Shout is granted power; and not only Collective Shout: the payment processors have made it clear that they are willing to listen to any pressure group, regardless what they want, where they are based, and what their motives are. Why did the lawyers employed by these companies tell them that they should listen to Collective Shout? That seems very bad advice to me.

What did Collective Shout demand of the payment processors? Obviously they did not come with a list of specific games with illegal content that they wanted to see removed. If they had, they could have gone to itch.io directly, and itch.io could have assessed if these games were actually doing something illegal and could have removed them. No, it is clear that Collective Shout had no specifics on which games they wanted to see removed. They wanted to see a whole general class of games removed, regardless whether these games were doing something illegal. They wanted to see the games removed which they found unacceptable on their own, personal moral principles. So what exactly did they not want to see in games? And why did the payment processors agree with them?

And why did the payment processors think they have any right to tell itch.io what to do? Thing is, itch.io is a US-based internet content distributor, and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 applies to them, which means that they are immune from liability for content posted by their users. Sure, if they are told that someone is doing something illegal on their platform, they can act. And I assume that they are perfectly willing to do so: users of their platform actually agree to not use it for illegal activities, so if itch.io becomes aware that something illegal is happening, they will interfere. And to be explicit about it: adult games are not illegal in the US (and in most parts of the world). Very specific kinds of games would be illegal, but it is clear that almost all adult content on itch.io is perfectly legal. 

So the demands of the payment processors were for itch.io to do something which it is not legally required to do. Moreover, it looks like their demands comprised that itch.io would remove content that is not illegal. As threat they used that they would stop giving itch.io access to their services (AFAIK a threat that would not work in Europe, as in Europe banks are not allowed to put demands on those who need access to their services, but in the US the Fair Access to Banking Act is not law yet). 

What it comes down to is that the payment processors put themselves in a position to decide what games people can and cannot have access to. They gave themselves the role of censor. This is not only immoral, it is also stupid. Because why would a company want to use a payment processor if that payment processor has made it clear that they may interfere in the company's business, especially considering that the interference may be based on the wishes of random groups of moralists and bigots? While itch.io may be small potatoes for the payment processors, this situation does reflect on how they treat their customers, and it may have negative effects for them in the future. 

The last thing I would like to point out is that I am feeling a bit queasy about itch.io's handling of the tag "adult." When you upload a game to itch.io you are requested to give the game some tags, and are also asked to include the tag "adult" if you think that the game contains content that is not meant for children. And, graciously, developers voluntarily include that tag for general classes of games that have adult themes, even if those games would be fine for more mature minors. Marking your game as "this may not be suitable for younger children" is now suddenly translated by itch.io as "this game should be shadowbanned." So by correctly following the procedures prescribed by itch.io, game developers have made themselves a target for punishment. This feels very wrong to me.

I understand that itch.io may have felt that they had no choice. But now game developers are actively searching for alternative ways to distribute their games. As soon as there is a good alternative that makes porting games over to it easy (which could be a competing platform which graciously opens its doors to delisted games), itch.io will see an exodus of games. It is therefore in the best interest of itch.io to quickly provide more clarity and resolve this matter urgently, in a way that satisfies almost all game developers. Because otherwise they will lose a significant chunk of their business.

Addendum August 1, 2025:

Good news: The Perils of Bianca and my previous game Sinderella are no longer delisted on itch.io. The reason appears to be that they are games which require no payments. This does not mean that I am now okay with the censoring by the payment processors, of course. Far from it. The actions of the payment processors are a great threat to freedom of expression and should be universally condemned.