this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2025
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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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[–] JustTheWind@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

We totally didn't do that! Valve and other merchants obviously kept receipts.

I almost love how normalized flagrant lying has become in the corpo-political sphere. They've become so emboldened by just telling whatever unbelievable lie they want and expecting to get away with it. If it's not catastrophically illegal to do so, they just lie. I don't take anything not said under oath seriously anymore, and even then, I take it with a grain of salt.

[–] SheeEttin@lemmy.zip 317 points 1 week ago (6 children)

"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?

[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

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

[–] yeahiknow3@lemmings.world 137 points 1 week ago

To be fair, that would be fucking hilarious.

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 63 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

[–] SPRUNT@lemmy.world 185 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

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[–] CocaineShrimp@sh.itjust.works 202 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 70 points 1 week ago (17 children)

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

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[–] dreugeworst@lemmy.ml 186 points 1 week ago (24 children)

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

[–] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 124 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] xiwi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 52 points 1 week ago (5 children)
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[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 85 points 1 week ago

nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part

All action movies should removed from streaming.

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[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 161 points 1 week ago (21 children)

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@sopuli.xyz 56 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (15 children)

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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[–] Grizzlyboy@lemmy.zip 141 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] NONE_dc@lemmy.world 114 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Collective Shout says it wasn't their fault, MC and Visa say it wasn't their fault, Steam and Itch say it wasn't their fault. Conclusion? No one is to blame! No one did it! What's more, it didn't even happen!! it was all a figment of our imagination!

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 50 points 1 week ago

Gee golly I accidentally dropped internet privacy into the garbage and almost threw it out with the trash. Oops didnt mean to! Silly me.

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[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 113 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

Tl;dr: Mastercard says they didn't "force" Valve to remove nsfw games. They just told them that if they didn't remove the games that were complained about by Collective Shout, they'll block them.

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[–] merdaverse@lemmy.world 109 points 1 week ago (4 children)

“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

This whole thing reads like a telephone game where nobody wants to take any responsibility.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 78 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Honestly, I don't care if MasterCard doesn't want to take responsibility. It was their rule and their intermediaries that caused the situation and they did not intervene when valve tried to reach out directly.

They are responsible through action or inaction, no matter how they try to deny it.

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[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 95 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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@lemmy.blahaj.zone 134 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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

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[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 92 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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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[–] TheGreenWizard@lemmy.zip 84 points 1 week ago (4 children)

So obviously somebody is lying. I really don't understand why Valve or Itch would be the ones lying about this. My money is on the group of self righteous censorship soldiers with too much time on their hands, and the payment companies. I could always be wrong I though.

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

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 71 points 1 week ago (10 children)

Isn't every game NSFW? Funny how language works.

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[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 60 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] darthelmet@lemmy.world 60 points 1 week ago

Gotta love it when companies put something in their legal agreements that just says “we can do whatever the fuck we want.” Is the rest of the wall of text just there to hide that somewhere someone won’t read?

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 55 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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?

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 53 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

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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[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 51 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 48 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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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