Collective Shout
❗Article Status Notice: Inappropriate Tone/Word Usage
This article needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues. Specifically it uses wording throughout that is non-compliant with the Editorial guidelines of this wiki.
Learn more ▼
| 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".[1] Collective Shout's activism focuses on protesting for the censorship and restriction of media that they categorize as sexualizing women or children in Australia.
The activist group became prominent in 2025 after their campaign against payment processors to cause online gaming platforms Steam and Itch.io to de-list hundreds of games, claiming that the games eroticize women.[2] This action also affected countries outside of Australia.[citation needed]
News and media outlets have expressed concern that the organization's censorship of NSFW media in the video game industry negatively impacts creative freedom.[3][4][5] Collective Shout has also been criticized across social media for what many[ who? ] see it 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 the game Grand Theft Auto V, stating that the game encouraged players to "murder women for entertainment."[6] The game was banned from two Australian department stores later that year.[6]
Pressure campaign against payment processors
In July 2025, Collective Shout launched a public campaign "demanding credit card companies and PayPal block payments" for games on Steam and Itch.io.[7][8]
Itch.io responded by de-indexing NSFW content on July 24.[9] Itch.io re-indexed free NSFW content on July 31.[10]
De-indexing of NSFW content, as well as SFW LGBTQ+ content,[11] continued on Itch.io on August 10th.
The group claims to have lobbied payment processors after sending 3,000 emails to Steam and receiving no response.[12][13]
Alongside NSFW content, the group also expressed a desire to remove Detroit: Become Human from gaming platforms, for depictions of physical abuse against women and children.[14]
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.[15]
See also
References
- ↑ "Collective Shout". Collective Shout. Archived from the original on 20 Jul 2025. Retrieved 7 Aug 2025.
- ↑ Taylor, Josh (2025-07-28). "Mastercard and Visa face backlash after hundreds of adult games removed from online stores Steam and Itch.io". The Guardian.
- ↑ Farokhmanesh, Megan (30 Jul 2025). "Gamers Are Furious About the Censorship of NSFW Games—and They're Fighting Back". WIRED. Archived from the original on 23 Aug 2025. Retrieved 23 Aug 2025.
- ↑ Dodds, Io (18 Aug 2025). "'Financial companies shouldn't be in this position': How more than 20,000 NSFW video games fell under censorship". The Independent.
- ↑ Hughes, Marley (2 Aug 2025). "This Advocacy Group is Threatening Video Games as We Know It". CBR.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "'Sexually violent' GTA 5 banned from Australian stores". BBC. 4 Dec 2014.
- ↑ Bita, Natasha (15 Jul 2025). "Child safety group finds 500 online 'games' role-playing rape and incest". The Australian. Archived from the original on 18 Jul 2025. Retrieved 18 Jul 2025.
- ↑ Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin (22 Jul 2025). "Anti-porn group who tried to ban GTA 5 claim credit for Steam's sex game crackdown". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 23 Jul 2025.
- ↑ "Update on NSFW content". Itch.io. 24 Jul 2025.
- ↑ "Reindexing adult NSFW content". Itch.io. 31 Jul 2025.
- ↑ Lazine, Mira (9 Aug 2025). "'I feel violated' - Queer Creators Lose Livelihoods in Itch.io Bans". Trans News Network. Archived from the original on 19 Aug 2025. Retrieved 24 Aug 2025.
- ↑ "Steam at Collective Shout". Collective Shout. Archived from the original on 20 Jul 2025. Retrieved 7 Aug 2025.
- ↑ Ore, Jonathan (31 Jul 2025). "How an anti-porn lobby on payment processors censored thousands of video games". CBC. Retrieved 1 Aug 2025.
- ↑ Barbe, Rebecca (6 Dec 2017). "Stop video game Detroit: Become Human, depicting child abuse being sold in Australia". change.org. Retrieved 16 Aug 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "After payment processors prompt removal of Steam games, journalists investigating the censorship resign". notebookcheck.net. 16 Aug 2025.