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   Mr Penguin (mr_penguin@social.freetalklive.com)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 04:41:20 JST Mr Penguin

   So I was right for anyone questioning whether it was top down (coming from visa/master card/etc) or an act of the payment processor alone to kick NSFW games from Itch.io. This regulation of the financial world is extremely dangerous for democracy and free speech (yes, I'm a democracy skeptic even if I'll give you that it appears to be the least bad solution thus far tried/implemented by comparison to things like kings and dictators):

   "Itch's founder told the gaming news site Aftermath that it was a notice from Visa that led to the sudden deindexing of so many games."

   What is happening here is that religious nut-jobs (some appear to be using the term feminists or some niche thereof) have lobbied for a crack down on porn and sex that they see as taboo. They push it as a crackdown on "sex trafficking", but sex trafficking today is a code word for going after the sex industry (porn primarily, but voluntary non-forced prostitution, etc) rather than a small percentage of violent thugs using violence to achieve their financial objectives. The state is itself a far more violent actor in crushing the lives of peaceful sex workers and peaceful actors in the porn industry than the pimps and actual sex traffickers (ie using violence).

   If it's OK to use violence, threats, and force against those involved in this industry that consists of mostly peaceful voluntary interactions than it can and will be used against political rivals. And we have already seen that with censorship filters (often used to try and stop piracy) in some countries and banks shutting off access to debit/credit/bank accounts of persons in Canada during what became known as the 'trucker protest'. These were protests against prime minister Justin Trudeau for excess COVID restrictions.

   • Embed this notice
     Mr Penguin (mr_penguin@social.freetalklive.com)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Aug-2025 08:44:43 JST Mr Penguin

     in reply to

     • fu

     @fu

     I think Visa/Master Card should be able to do what they like, but the problem is ultimately the government regulations inhibit competition within the market place for payment solutions and that ends up eliminating free market competition. I am against the regulations that enable the psycho religious or feminist groups the power to sway politicians (and the bureaucrats they put in power) into using said regulations (they have threatened every financial institution, specifically the suspension of licenses to operate) to threaten financially regulated entities into doing their political bidding of stopping others these fringe groups don't like from being able to receive payments online.

   • Embed this notice
     fu (fu@libranet.de)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Aug-2025 08:44:45 JST fu

     in reply to
     @mr_penguin what do you think about the argument that private organizations, like Visa and MasterCard, need to exercise the right to respond to market forces, like the religious nut-jobs desires?