The Whole Story Behind a Change.org Petition Started Against Videogame Censorship

A little while ago, something complicated occurred on Steam: many games were delisted with a new rule in the Steamworks. A new 15th rule has been added to Valve's platform, but the main problem is that it's quite vague and possibly dangerous regarding censorship.

So, how'd we get here? On the 16th of July, Steam released an extremely vague rule — the type of behaviour the company can sometimes partake in to save their hide in the face of potential political quarrels or controversy. The rule reads as follows:

Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam's payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers. In particular, certain kinds of adult only content.

This is taken directly from the Steamworks Documentation, where developers are given guidelines on what's allowed on the storefront and what isn't. If you're confused about the wording, then you wouldn't be the first, as many have been befuddled about the actual implications; there is no hard and fast way to differentiate what is or isn't allowed.

The thing is that the vagueness is sort of the point: Steam doesn't really know what it's banning, either, as this is coming from an entirely separate entity. While usually, Valve is pretty hands-off when it comes to what kind of content is or isn't allowed, and since the launch of 18+ titles on the platform, it's become even more prevalent. This time around, it's something that might be outside of their control.

The rule's vagueness might be intended to protect Steam from any repercussions and ensure that they can point to it whenever the aforementioned "payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers" (wow, that's a mouthful) kick up a storm... and they did. On the same day that the rule was launched, many NSFW games were delisted from Steam, as noticed by SteamDB.

These games had two things in common: they were NSFW, and they touched on morally sensitive topics. A large chunk of these were from the same developer, which was famed for releasing this type of content prominently.

While some shared the sentiment that "nothing of value was lost" due to the theme of the games, many disagreed with the notion because of the implications regarding censorship. While it starts with "acceptable" things to deem unacceptable, at what point can this censorship turn to things that are more commonly accepted? Fear arose for NSFW 18+ games with standard themes, violence in games, and — at extremist levels — LGBTQ+ content.

This has led to a new Change.org petition by Zero Ryoko named, "Tell MasterCard, Visa & Activist Groups: Stop Controlling What We Can Watch, Read, or Play". Launched on the 17th of July, the petition is calling on the American Consumer Credit Counseling, Mastercard, Visa, and the Federal Trade Commission to take action against the censorship and removal of titles.

Shortly after the launch of the petition, a new surge of bans arrived, but this time, to a different platform: itch.io. While Steam was quiet about what caused the issue, we got to hear a lot more about what was happening behind the scenes.

After the release of the highly controversial No Mercy, a campaign that has been fighting against objectification and sexualisation of women in media, advertising, and pop culture, caught wind of the videogame industry: Collective Shout. From this, the movement has been putting pressure on payment providers to fight against NSFW content across both storefronts, and it seems like it has had an effect.

While Steam was hit first, itch.io seemed to be hit more aggressively, as all adult NSFW games have been "deindexed" (meaning removed from search) for the time being. According to the official update named "Update on NSFW Content" on the site, their ability to process payments was put in jeopardy if the team didn't act fast, as the "situation developed rapidly" and they had to "act urgently" to protect the payment infrastructure.

itch.io hasn't made it clear when they will be able to relist adult games and which ones will be removed permanently. As it stands, however, the page will share information about new guidelines for NSFW games.

So, Collective Shout somehow has enough power to fight against the biggest of the industry… exactly why have we never heard of them? Founded by Australian woman Melinda Tankard Reist, the beginning of Collective Shout was meant to protect women and children from sexual exploitation, trafficking, and violence against women. In fact, the very movement was founded back in 2009 (according to the official website, though Wikipedia cites it as 2008).

The name comes as a result of a letter that Melinda Tankard Reist received from Tania Andrusiak, with the full quote being, “This book is a collective shout against the pornification of culture”, which stood out to her and led her to create the movement. At surface-level, Collective Shout seems well-intended to ensure that they’re protecting the most vulnerable from exploitation by modern-day media.

Since then, the team has been fighting against all sorts of media that touches on sensitive topics, with a particular crusade against depictions of minors placed in dangerous situations and the objectification of women. Their movements have aligned with these ideologies in a way that many might call “loosely”.

Some of Collective Shout’s actions have been received with controversy, however, even before delving into some of the ones regarding the videogame industry. Notably, the team has spoken in support of the notoriously controversial Cuties show from Netflix, which placed underage actors in vulnerable positions; this was viewed as hypocritical by critics of the movement.

No Mercy isn’t the first time that Collective Shout battled the videogame industry, as the movement’s fights can be traced back to 2010, speaking out against Nickelodeon videogames featuring sexualised content and violence, then in 2011 to fight against Ubisoft’s Wii launch We Dare and its PG rating. But perhaps the most notorious moments were the fights against Grand Theft Auto V and Detroit: Become Human.

Back in the tail end of 2014, Collective Shout launched a Change.org petition speaking out against the sale of Rockstar Games’Grand Theft Auto V at locations like Target for content that promoted the option to “kill women by punching her unconscious, killing with a machete, bat, or guns to get their money returned”.This is from the age-old meme of the nut-and-run mentality that Grand Theft Auto instilled into its player base, wherein you can restore your health by having sex with a prostitute and then getting your money back via violent methods.

At the time, the movement won with 47,000 signatures and managed to get the game removed from Australian Target, with a message from the then General Manager Corporate Affairs, Jim Cooper, stating that there was a “significant level of concern about the game’s content”, stating “we feel the decision to stop selling GTA5 is in line with the majority view of our customers”. As far as the record shows, Grand Theft Auto V is still unavailable in Target Australia ever since their victory, though it remains available in other storefronts and marketplaces, and it was isolated to the country. However, Target Australia continued selling other R-rated content, like DVDs and games.

Collective Shout has since been criticised for this due to the misrepresentation of the actual gameplay, omitting the fact that pretty much all characters, regardless of gender or occupation, can be punched unconscious and killed with a machete, bat, or gun. Current-day narrative sees this as an overstepping from the movement, as players view the prostitute incident as more of an isolated case in what is otherwise a barrage of unhindered, untargeted chaos.

The next controversy was from 2018, when Collective Shout attacked Detroit: Become Human due to depictions of domestic abuse. Following the narrative of Kara and Alice, this was viewed as unacceptable by the movement in a tweet that links to a Change.org post (which I was unable to find, as @CollectiveShout is currently private following the Steam and itch.io controversy).

The tweet in question was captured by u/Sudden-Refuse-7915 on the r/DetroitBecomeHuman subreddit. Yet, the depictions of domestic abuse in this case are purely narrative, meant to give the player sympathy and move them into caring for the abused; a now-deleted VICE article critiquing Collective Shout called censoring this could be “considered anti-feminist in intent”. Their Detroit: Become Human movements, however, all failed.

Many view Collective Shout’s movements as overstepping boundaries and pushing political and moral values into what should otherwise be impartial corporations, such as Steam and itch.io. In retaliation, the videogame industry responded in kind: a Change.org movement (which has now accrued 100,000 signatures at the time of writing) to fight back against the censorship by entities otherwise not governmental. Daily, the signatures are growing by the thousands as more outlets and influencers cover the censorship of gaming. 

This leads us to this month, following the censorship of Steam and itch.io in fear of payment provider repercussions: many content creators, from NSFW to even some LGBTQ+ ones, are voicing their concerns and fear of the future from the sudden censorship. With Visa and Mastercard backing Collective Shout’s movement against the industry, itch.io specifically has brought down all of their 18+ games in fear of being unable to process payments to all developers.

As the censorship reaches public eyes, the controversy surrounding Collective Shout has reached the mainstream, for the better and worse of the videogame industry. While many are opting to battle via diplomacy through signing petitions and spreading the word, others have taken the death threat route that videogamers are all too criticised for, as posted by Collective Shout in their latest blog covering the topic (content warning: many may find the contents in the post disturbing or distressing).

Those following a diplomatic and united stance are taking Martin Niemöller’s words as the motto for the anti–Collective Shout movement:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.