Indie Game Platform itch.io Bans All NSFW Content

The popular indie game publishing platform itch.io has published a statement explaining why it has removed all adult (not safe for work, NSFW) content from its platform without notice. Removed from seach indexes, this content can still be found if you have an existing link to it, but for all intends and purposes those games and other content has been effectively deleted off the platform.

The statement claims the de-indexing is a temporary measure and was necessitated by a campaign against itch.io and the much more mainstream games publishing platform Steam from an organisation called Collective Shout. This organisation had lobbied payment processing companies like Visa, Mastercard and Paypal to stop accepting payments “profiting from rape, incest and child abuse games”. Because of the ambiguity in what constitues such content, and deliniates it from other adult content, platforms are now apparently chosing to remove all adult content whatsoever.

From the itch.io statement:

We have “deindexed” all adult NSFW content from our browse and search pages. We understand this action is sudden and disruptive, and we are truly sorry for the frustration and confusion caused by this change. Recently, we came under scrutiny from our payment processors regarding the nature of some content hosted on itch.io. Due to a game titled “No Mercy”, which was temporarily available on itch.io before being banned back in April, the organization Collective Shout launched a campaign against Steam and itch.io, directing concerns to our payment processors about the nature of certain content found on both platforms.

This is a time critical moment for itch.io. The situation developed rapidly, and we had to act urgently to protect the platform’s core payment infrastructure. Unfortunately, this meant it was not realistic to provide creators with advance notice before making this change. We are currently conducting a comprehensive audit of content to ensure we can meet the requirements of our payment processors. Pages will remain deindexed as we complete our review. Once this review is complete, we will introduce new compliance measures. For NSFW pages, this will include a new step where creators must confirm that their content is allowable under the policies of the respective payment processors linked to their account. Part of this review will see some pages being permanently removed from itch.io.

The platform released this statement in what seems to be a direct response to a post by a user of the platform who noticed the ban.

Apparently, itch.io had not communicated this ban was about to happen to their creators aside from a single 🫡 emoji in a Discord chat channel.

Payment processors like Visa, Mastercard or PayPal banning adult content isn’t a new thing. Pornhub had to delete all content that wasn’t verifiably produced with consent from all performers in 2020 because of pressures from payment providers and PayPal has been closing the accounts of prositutes for more than a decade now — and in some instances keeping the money! Something the ACLU has been fighting since 2021 in the name of “LGBTQ+ rights”, but presumably straight prostitutes are included.

The stealth ban by itch.io follows a similar decision Steam took last week. It is worth noting that games that violate US law are already illegal on both platforms. In a vast majority of cases, these new bans seem to impact content that is completely legal and simply deemed undesirable by payment providers.