Financial censorship

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Financial censorship is the practice of major payment processors to refuse to process transactions for entities they deem to not align with their own values. Since these payment processors hold an extremely dominant position in global finance with no widely-adopted alternative, this practice results in a strong chilling effect by making independent free expression that runs afoul of their policies financially unsustainable.

Examples

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Steam

In July 2025, Steam, an online platform and digital marketplace for video games and related computer software and assets, added a new rule to their publishing guidelines against "in particular, certain kinds of adult only content", and proceeded to withdraw hundreds of titles from sale on the platform.^[1]

Itch.io

In July 2025, Itch.io, a platform for many indie games, delisted "all adult NSFW content" from their storefront. Later that month, they restored all NSFW games, as long as they're free. Currently, they are in negotiations with payment processors to start restoring some paid titles, but they have acknowledged that this will see some titles permanently removed from the platform.

External links

References

↑ Koselke, Anna (2025-07-18). "Valve confirms pressure from banks and card companies is to blame for the storefront axing adult Steam games: "Loss of payment methods would prevent customers from being able to purchase other titles"". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 26 Jul 2025. Retrieved 15 Aug 2025. Judging by the information available on SteamDB, over 100 games have been marked as "retired" from Valve's storefront in just two days – many of which are titles with adult-only content.

[1] Koselke, Anna (2025-07-18). "Valve confirms pressure from banks and card companies is to blame for the storefront axing adult Steam games: "Loss of payment methods would prevent customers from being able to purchase other titles"". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 26 Jul 2025. Retrieved 15 Aug 2025. Judging by the information available on SteamDB, over 100 games have been marked as "retired" from Valve's storefront in just two days – many of which are titles with adult-only content.

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