Collective Shout

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Collective Shout

Basic information
Founded	2009
Legal structure	Private
Industry	Lobbying, Activism
Official website	https://www.collectiveshout.org/

Collective Shout is an Australian activist group founded in 2009 by its current director, Melinda Tankard Reist. It identifies itself as "A grassroots movement challenging the objectification of women and sexualization of girls in media, advertising and popular culture".

The activist group became prominent in 2025 after their campaign against payment processors caused online gaming platforms Steam and Itch.io to de-list hundreds of games that are believed to victimize women. While the advocacy is based in Australia, the effects of this movement affected other countries as well. This action also affected countries outside of Australia.^{[citation needed]}

Some news and media outlets have expressed concern that the organization's censorship of adult content in the video game industry negatively impacts creative freedom. Collective Shout has also been criticized across social media for what many^{[ who? ]} see as a push towards censorship and their usage of questionable methods.^{[citation needed]}

Incidents

Protest against Grand Theft Auto V

In 2014, the group protested Grand Theft Auto V on grounds that the video game encouraged players to "murder women for entertainment." The video game was banned from two Australian department stores later that year.

Pressure campaign against payment processors

Main article: Valve allows ISPs and payment processors to censor content on Steam

In July 2025, Collective Shout launched a public campaign "demanding credit card companies and PayPal block payments" for games on Steam and Itch.io.

Itch.io responded by de-indexing games with explicit content on July 24. On July 31, they re-indexed free games with explicit content.

De-indexing continued on August 10th, this time of games with explicit content and of LGBTQ+ games without explicit content.

The group claims to have lobbied payment processors after sending 3,000 emails to Steam and receiving no response.

Alongside explicit content, the group also expressed a desire to remove Detroit: Become Human from gaming platforms for depictions of physical abuse against women and children.

The owner of the journalism website Vice allegedly instructed certain articles related to Collective Shout to be removed from their website due to "controversial subject matter." The author of the articles and several of her co-workers resigned soon afterwards in protest.

See also

• Steam