Mastercard and Visa Under Fire as Petition 'Not Police' Legal Content Blows Up

Mastercard and Visa, two of the biggest financial gateways globally, are in the line of fire following an online petition asking these companies to 'stop policing' and censoring legal adult-oriented fictional content.

The petition also addresses that the movement to this so-called 'massive content censoring' has been promoted by the 'Collective Shout', an Australian feminist group, which has called for removing games online which 'promote rape and incest'.

'Collective Shout Doesn't Speak for Everyone'

In a now-popular Change.org petition, it was stated that MasterCard and Visa should stop censoring legal fictional entertainment due to pressure from advocacy groups like 'Collective Shout', which aims to push so-called 'moral agendas.'

Moreover, the petition added that these payment processors are 'hypocritically' cracking down on legal books, games, films, and artwork that offend certain sensibilities, while ignoring credible reports of real abuse on other platforms.

'Adults are capable of choosing what they want to watch, read, or play. If someone doesn't like a certain type of entertainment, the solution is simple: walk away. Nobody is forced to engage with content they find offensive — but they have no right to dictate what others are allowed to enjoy, especially when it's within the bounds of the law,' the petition stated.

'Stop Censoring Fictional Content'

The petition also stated that MasterCard and Visa must cease censoring legal, fictional content that complies with the law and platform standards. They should also reject influence from activist groups that promote moral panic or misrepresent fiction as harmful.

For them, these companies must be fully transparent about any content restrictions and clearly explain the rationale behind them. Above all, they must protect creators' rights to produce legal adult content and ensure there is a fair appeals process for any media that is penalised.

'Let creators create. Let consumers choose. Payment processors and activist groups should not be cultural gatekeepers in a digital age,' the petition concluded.

More on Collective Shout's Campaigns

Collective Shout, the Australian feminist non-profit organisation founded by Melinda Tankard Reist, is at the centre of the petition–and has been known in the past for actively calling for online gaming distribution sites to take down games which depict rape and incest. However, they have also been under fire for also involving takedowns of non-pornographic games leaning towards LGBTQ+ themes.

In its now-archived press release, the organisation has boasted that it has pushed Steam, one of the biggest gaming distribution sites, to introduce a new rule to its policies and remove hundreds of rape and incest games.

They claimed that through their efforts, only 81 of the 500 games they have tagged as 'explicit' have now been removed from this platform.

On another post (also archived), the group also wrote an open letter to Mastercard and Visa, requesting that they cease their processing payments on gaming platforms that 'host rape, incest and child sexual abuse-themed games.'

'We do not see how facilitating payment transactions and deriving financial benefit from these violent and unethical games is consistent with your corporate values and mission statements,' they stated.

Media Entities Also Censored?

One of the earliest publications to cover Steam's new ruling on adult games was VICE Media, where contributor Ana Valens covered the ruling and Collective Shout's involvement in the campaign.

However, the publication's owner, Savage Ventures, had demanded the removal of the articles. Following this, Valens and several other writers from Vice's video games vertical Waypoint have quit in response.

In a subsequent report from Aftermath, it noted that Waypoint's coverage of said subject was the first to report the relationship between Steam's new ruling on adult games and 'Collective Shout's' widespread censorship campaign.

Valens elaborated on the situation during a recent Twitch stream on Sunday morning, stating that Savage Ventures had previously expressed concerns that Waypoint's articles about sexual or political issues could negatively impact the site's ranking and visibility on Google.

'I've been told very specifically, with several articles, that it's an issue with... Google, Google overlords. We actually had to fight very hard to keep some of our more politically-oriented VTuber coverage up because [Savage Ventures] were nervous it was going to be too R-rated for Google... I was told especially [of issues with] Google Discover,' she stated.

The journalist was also responsible for some of the past coverages involving Kirsche, a controversial VTuber figure known for their far-right political views, which were also subsequently taken down.

Critics Pop Up, Collective Shout Silent

'Collective Shout' initially stated that 'misogynistic' gamers attacked their team, defending the existence of said games while also sending out threats to the organisation's team, allegedly encouraging them to 'kill themselves'. 'The irony isn't lost on us. This is a major win for women and girls,' they stated.

Notably, the organisation has privatised its X (Twitter) account, where they are most active in terms of sharing the latest updates from their end.

One of the campaign's vocal critics is popular YouTuber Cr1TiKaL, who recently released a video titled 'Censorship Is Out of Control', calling out Collective Shout for expanding their influence beyond targeting problematic games to aggressively censoring any adult content and even mainstream titles such as 'Detroit: Become Human and Grand Theft Auto V'.

'Collective Shout is a very powerful organisation that somehow has a lot of leverage on payment processors. I don't know if they're just over there giving them perpetual wet willies or they got some serious dirt on like the upper echelon elites in the food chain at the payment processors like they got proof they're in the Epstein files or some sh*t but they have got these payment processors by the nutsack and they are squeezing the piss from their balls,' he remarked.

Mastercard and Visa have yet to respond to their critics regarding the 'Collective Shout' campaign.