Blamed for Steam games ban, Mastercard encourages censorship during Riot Games VCT livestreams (www.notebookcheck.net)
from themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to technology@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 09:06
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/50823076

lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/50822969

#technology

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pycorax@sh.itjust.works on 10 Aug 09:07 next collapse

Classic streisand effect

Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip on 10 Aug 19:59 collapse

This is less Streisand and more… Just continuing to do the same things you lie you didn’t do

brsrklf@jlai.lu on 10 Aug 10:44 next collapse

Ah ah ah boost that shit.

gndagreborn@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 10:55 next collapse

I remember during world’s a couple of years ago, the stream chat was shouting “TY MASTERCARD” everytime their ads came up

arin@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 13:25 next collapse

Bunch of losers

SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 10 Aug 15:13 collapse

God, imagine thanking a fucking corporation lmao

ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com on 10 Aug 11:15 next collapse

MasterCard lied? No they would never

Anyway, thanks MasterCard for introducing me to porn games a few weeks ago

CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 Aug 13:32 next collapse

There was an entire subreddit devoted to porn games but it’s not made it over to Lemmy.

Maybe once I get laid off I’ll start a community

DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social on 10 Aug 13:36 next collapse

I’m pretty sure I saw one, but maybe it was just general anime thirst trapping. There’s a lot of niche abandoned communities.

CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 Aug 14:52 collapse

I don’t log into my Lemmynsfw account much these days. But I know that a lot of “copy” subreddits were made in the days after the API shutoff. So it very well could be a community already but I’m too lazy to look.

hmmm@sh.itjust.works on 10 Aug 14:46 next collapse

Make it. I will be there.

Also, Please play “Ripples” even if you don’t like Lewd Game. It’s story is so good that the Lewd Scene just feels like reward

Edit: Forgot to say but it’s completely free

CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 Aug 14:49 collapse

Did you mean “make it”? If you made it already, link the community!

hmmm@sh.itjust.works on 10 Aug 14:59 collapse

Ahh sorry typo. Can you suggest any instance for the LewdGame?

CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 Aug 15:05 collapse

If I make one it will likely be on lemmynsfw.com. I doubt that there is an instance specifically for porn games though.

monogram@feddit.nl on 10 Aug 15:50 collapse

!lewdgames@lemmynsfw.com 👑

!rule34_stories_and_games@lemmynsfw.com

!porny_games@lemmynsfw.com

!adultgames@lemmy.world

!porny_games@lemmy.world

Akip@discuss.tchncs.de on 10 Aug 23:37 collapse

since you’re compiling a list, lemme add a forum f95zone.to

thann@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 Aug 16:46 collapse

You need to censor those messages accusing us of censorship!

Also, If someone was secretly negotiating on their behalf they would be asking the FBI to help arrest the impersonator, and they would probably want the publics help too!

Passerby6497@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 12:33 next collapse

Oh wow, it’s like everyone who said MasterCard was lying to protect their image from reality turned out to be correct. Only someone with a functioning brain could have seen this coming.

BurgerBaron@piefed.social on 10 Aug 12:42 collapse

IMO MasterCard leadership already agreed with the nazis and were just looking for an excuse to act.

peoplebeproblems@midwest.social on 10 Aug 14:16 collapse

I do believe MasterCard and Visa owners and execs are card holding Nazis.

pheggs@feddit.org on 10 Aug 12:51 next collapse

Man I just wish there were better alternatives to MasterCard and Visa.

iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 13:22 next collapse

With how things are going, I’d be happy to support an EU-based alternative.

pheggs@feddit.org on 10 Aug 13:23 collapse

I read that this is actually coming. I forgot what it was called though. Fingers crossed.

swab148@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 Aug 13:37 collapse

GNU Taler?

caoimhinr@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 13:48 next collapse

Wero.

pheggs@feddit.org on 10 Aug 14:39 collapse

I have seen it mentioned quite a few times on websites. Can you actually pay normal shops using that?

frongt@lemmy.zip on 10 Aug 17:22 next collapse

Maybe a few in Switzerland. I haven’t seen any news about it specifically.

pheggs@feddit.org on 10 Aug 17:58 next collapse

I don’t think so to be honest, I have never seen it here :-( Maybe in a couple years

helvetpuli@sopuli.xyz on 10 Aug 23:48 collapse

We have our own system, Twint. Wero was based on it, but so far they’re not interchangeable.

iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world on 11 Aug 06:30 collapse

I’m afraid it’s not expanded to many countries just yet :(

peoplebeproblems@midwest.social on 10 Aug 14:16 next collapse

Isn’t Stripe one of the growing alternatives?

MashedTech@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 14:35 next collapse

Stripe is a payment processor. It has different payment methods it supports. Which are MasterCard and Visa. But it does also support(if you can use it and the merchant accepts it): Giro card, other card options, Revolut Pay and other options. Those avoid the MasterCard, Visa ecosystem.

Regardless, not everyone wants to use or uses Stripe. And it’s a bad thing for everyone to use Stripe just because of their interoperability because that then gives stripe too much power.

Plus, for a company like Valve, the fees of Stripe would severely affect their revenue.

Noja@sopuli.xyz on 10 Aug 14:38 collapse

Stripe bans even more stuff stripe.com/en-de/legal/restricted-businesses , recently they banned payments for online dating platforms in the US.

JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz on 10 Aug 15:20 next collapse

Yeah, Stripe is the reason itch.io had to pull all paid NSFW games.

However, it isn’t exactly their fault, either:

We spoke with Stripe yesterday about their content policies. They confirmed that they will not be able to support adult content that fits the following definition: “content designed for sexual gratification.” Stripe asked us to pass along the following message to our users:

Stripe is currently unable to support sexually explicit content due to restrictions placed on them by their banking partners, despite card networks generally supporting adult content (with the appropriate registrations). Stripe has indicated that they hope to be able to support adult content in the future.

arararagi@ani.social on 10 Aug 18:09 collapse

This is why it’s so hard to fight this, every company blames another one but never by name, I’m sure it’s by design

BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 15:22 collapse

In the Itch.io incident, Stripe laid the blame for that on “banking partner” rules, claiming they were looking for ways to fix it.

Doomsider@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 14:39 next collapse

It really boggles the mind why we have to go through private corporations to use our monetary system in the digital realm

If we had to use private corporations then there needs to be enough competition to prevent what is happening now.

BombOmOm@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 14:59 next collapse

FedNow became a thing just two years ago. With transaction fees of just $0.043/transaction, it’s cheaper than every other payment processor out there. Hopefully it can gain adoption and push out Visa/Mastercard.

PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 10 Aug 18:37 next collapse

Interesting. Good to have a less rent-seeking option, not sure I love the idea of the Fed just (assumedly) having access to all my transactions, though.

b3an@lemmy.world on 11 Aug 07:08 collapse

What prevents them from getting bigger and doing the same thing. This cycle of sadomasochism needs to stop at the root cause.

BD89@lemmy.sdf.org on 10 Aug 15:25 next collapse

As much as everyone here hates it literally the only way to ever do that is cryptocurrency unless you receive precious metals in the mail.

arararagi@ani.social on 10 Aug 18:08 collapse

Steam already tried it, but it was too volatile so they stopped accepting it.

BD89@lemmy.sdf.org on 10 Aug 18:31 next collapse

They tried bitcoin. And also fraud was a concern too.

With Monero, fees are minimal and there’s no possible way to prove fraud thus if you KYCd youd be breaking no laws and it would work quite well. The volatility is still a factor though for sure.

Stablecoins exist but ETH also has large fees at certain times like btc so and other chains like Polygon are trash and not as secure.

Volatility is a factor, but using a different crypto than Bitcoin is necessary to avoid high fees and stolen coins

NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 23:03 collapse

Fees are no longer a problem on Ethereum if you use one of the sidechains. Sub penny.

They might till be higher on mainnet if some big event is happening, but are otherwise relatively low.

NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 22:50 collapse

They stopped using Bitcoin when the idiots in control of development/online communities kicked out/banned all the dissenters and scammed everyone into thinking we couldn’t raise the blocksize beyond 1mb, which caused massive congestion and delayed transactions, which resulted in complicated failed payments/refund problems. Their ‘leader’ cheered when transaction fees skyrocketed.

Steam was 100% right to stop accepting it given the problems the congestion caused. Steam wasn’t the only one to stop accepting it after that manufactured clusterfuck. Mainstream consumer adoption which was starting to happen died at that point.

You can just use something like Ethereum instead now and avoid that entirely, and you can avoid the volatility by accepting something like USDC

frongt@lemmy.zip on 10 Aug 17:19 collapse

You don’t have to. You can use cash, checks, crypto, gift cards, and more. It’s only credit cards (and probably almost all debit cards) that go through them.

Seleni@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 22:28 collapse

I’ve been to places that don’t take check or cash anymore though.

ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml on 10 Aug 15:27 next collapse

I wish they weren’t a duopoly. There isn’t really any other options even if they would be better, just because of the marketshare hold they have.

NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml on 10 Aug 15:52 next collapse

AmEx & Discover. I don’t know if steam takes them, though.

spankmonkey@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 16:25 next collapse

Does anyone take them anymore?

seralth@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 16:30 next collapse

I can’t recall the last time I saw a place that doesn’t.

The problem of finding places that take amex or discover is not really a problem these days.

spankmonkey@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 16:32 next collapse

That’s good to hear, just haven’t noticed their logos for years while visa/mc logos seem to be everywhere.

castlebravo404@lemmynsfw.com on 10 Aug 21:13 collapse

They still exist but it’s usually small mom and pop places for AmEx, in my experience. Just because they take a slightly bigger cut.

HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 10 Aug 16:56 next collapse

A lot of places won’t take them because they both of those cards have higher fees.

NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml on 10 Aug 21:35 collapse

apparently Steam according to other commenters.

seralth@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 16:30 next collapse

Steam has always accepted them

castlebravo404@lemmynsfw.com on 10 Aug 21:11 collapse

They definitely take AmEx that’s typically what I use.

butwhyishischinabook@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 17:01 collapse

Discover? Not that much better but works fine for me. Good cashback too.

NotAnotherLemmyUser@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 13:31 next collapse

Ana Valens recently resigned from Vice following an article about the censorship of games. On social media, she shared communication between Mastercard and Riot Games.

Looks like Vice can’t be trusted as a reliable source of information if they’re willing to fire journalists after a little outside pressure is put on them.

Saleh@feddit.org on 10 Aug 13:44 next collapse

This also goes to an entire new level. Before it was “only” censoring digital products and events. Now it is directly censoring media outlets.

This screams for an antitrust lawsuit, if a company has this kind of power.

Evil_Shrubbery@lemmy.zip on 10 Aug 14:59 collapse

Megacorp be megacorping.

We should always fight giants like this.
And think to not feed them indirectly.

(Not to mention that such basic infrastructure should never be for-profit.)

lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com on 10 Aug 14:46 next collapse

Could be great links to share over Riot Games streams.

  • MasterCard has asked Riot to keep an eye out for negative sentiments on official Riot streams
  • Riot has asked esports content creators working with official Riot properties to watch out for any negative sentiments toward MasterCard
  • Moderators have been told to look out for any unusual activity around the MasterCard issue

No better publicity than getting their own efforts thrown back at their faces.

MasterCard is running an effective PR campaign against themselves. They can’t stop giving their critics all this gold.

thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org on 10 Aug 16:08 collapse

theverge.com/…/vice-media-layoffs-bankruptcy-shan…

they havn’t been trustworthy since 2023

SabinStargem@lemmy.today on 10 Aug 14:58 next collapse

If it was about money, MasterVisa would have already given up. There are people who claim that MasterVisa bent the knee to Collective Shout for the sake of money, yet when a much bigger demographic speaks, MasterVisa tries to ignore it.

This is about the power to shape society.

tempest@lemmy.ca on 10 Aug 16:20 next collapse

Gamers who care about this are a much smaller group than American regressive religious zealots.

spankmonkey@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 16:23 collapse

Australian religious zealots are the ones taking credit for the steam & itch.io censorship.

vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works on 10 Aug 16:48 next collapse

The hypothesis I’ve heard is that the zealots have deep enough ties to the Australian government to be pains in the ass for MasterCard and Visa. Though I can’t imagine Australia is a big enough demographic to really matter meaningfully, also if you are any type of international entity you should have Australia marked as fuck ass stupid place is the Idaho of the Anglosphere shitty government but with lots of decent folks about.

BD89@lemmy.sdf.org on 10 Aug 19:17 next collapse

Straight up its like the shithole of western countries.

Although UK and USA are catching up

Taleya@aussie.zone on 10 Aug 22:36 collapse

Uh. No.

Do you seriously think Australia is a big enough player for mastercard and visa to kowtow despite building pressure planetwide? We’re fucking small potatoes and we’ve always known it.

Payment processors own upper echelons are full of weird religious fundamentalists, and that’s where a lot of this is coming from. Don’t give collective shout any credit, very few people in Australia even knew who the fuck they were before they started claiming shit. They’re the online version of that weird proselytiser outside st paul’s.

(And if you think Conroy is a tie, lemme describe in detail how much people want to barbecue that idiot…)

vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works on 11 Aug 03:54 collapse

Fair enough, though them being stupid greedy bastards is also an element to the why in such a situation. Regardless Visa and MasterCard need to pushed out of the financial system and forcibly dissolved.

QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works on 11 Aug 01:38 collapse

*TERFs

Pjonathan@lemmy.world on 11 Aug 00:24 collapse

The fact that multi-millionaires are doing to most heinous shit with their money and getting a way with it, meanwhile me, a wage slave, has a payment processor telling me what I’m allowed to do with my money, society is built on tiers.

BD89@lemmy.sdf.org on 10 Aug 15:17 next collapse

Man wtf can we DO about this shit? I’m planning on calling and shit but damn they don’t give a fuck.

Is it too late??

Do you have to have assloads of money to file a class action suit? Like would steam or GOG or itch be down to be a part of it or is that just a pipe dream.

I am not promoting it, but I will say that this is the exact reason shit like cryptocurrency exists. Stupid overreaching shit like this.

explodicle@sh.itjust.works on 10 Aug 15:27 next collapse

I’m super pro crypto but it isn’t a magic bullet. The companies being restricted are victims of a monopoly who will retaliate if they try alternatives. It’s the same reason NFTs haven’t killed Ticketmaster.

BD89@lemmy.sdf.org on 10 Aug 16:33 next collapse

Is it possible for us the people to do it then? How do you organize something like a class action lawsuit against a big player like that?

They JUST finished paying out the 5.5 Billion in a class action lawsuit they’ve already lost before so we can for sure do it again, right?

kameecoding@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 17:20 collapse

Crypto is now a fucking wall street product.

NFTs are highly regarded.

The reason you can’t kill Ticketmaster is because Everyone who stands to make money benefits from Ticketmaster and the only ones to benefit from an alternative is customers.

explodicle@sh.itjust.works on 10 Aug 17:56 collapse

NFTs are highly regarded.

I’m going to take the day to reflect on how 100.0% out of touch I must be. I’ve been using crypto for more years than I’ll admit, been reading tech news, and talking about it with other real engineers at work. Never once did I hear anything about anyone ever regarding NFTs highly.

kameecoding@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 18:59 next collapse

Let’s just say it’s a way to avoid word filters.

youtu.be/eOBoKxEcVAA

Though I should have said, they are fucking regarded

QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works on 11 Aug 02:24 collapse

That’s because NFTs were a scam that has long since dried up.

seralth@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 16:28 next collapse

Call your credit union and demand amex and discover alternatives.

Call visa and MasterCard and waste their time.

If you use a bank you are likely fucked.

frongt@lemmy.zip on 10 Aug 17:16 next collapse

Keep calling. Tell your friends. It’s already gotten MasterCard’s attention enough to make a statement.

LabelBox@lemmy.zip on 10 Aug 15:39 next collapse

I wonder what incentive these companies have to force censorship… hmmmm.

HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 10 Aug 16:53 next collapse

Pretty pathetic that corporations are even as smart as the ferengi.

weremacaque@sh.itjust.works on 10 Aug 21:02 next collapse

Stuff like this is going to make people mostly pay in cash and buy gift cards as needed. I already started buying most of my things in person anyway just to avoid paying for shipping. I’m seriously considering only buying steam games with gift cards I buy at the store and avoiding using my card as much as possible.

interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml on 10 Aug 21:21 collapse

Credit cards should be illegal they are tools of Molloch and everyone loses at least a little from their usage. Credit card payment charges should be itemized on the bill of any purchase and also rewards should be considered taxable income over 1000$/year

interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 04:30 next collapse

You do understand that since vendors are not allowed
on risk of credit excommunication, pass the transaction fee to the vendor
It forces the vendor to put that fee in the base price.
Everyone pays the transaction fee
But what if you pay debit ?
you don’t even get cashback rewards
but you STILL pay that increased price,
On everything you buy
everyone without a credit card still pays a 3% tax

Credit cards are profoundly immoral

mojofrododojo@lemmy.world on 11 Aug 08:08 collapse

they are tools of Molloch

dafuq

Credit card payment charges should be itemized on the bill of any purchase and also rewards should be considered taxable income over 1000$/year

I feel like we came to the same conclusions for very different reasons…

dudesss@lemmy.ca on 10 Aug 23:17 next collapse

How well are Visa Debit or Mastercard Debit as an alternative for paying online?

meliaesc@lemmy.world on 10 Aug 23:22 collapse

That wouldn’t make any meaningful impact. They still get the processing fees from the vendor.

dudesss@lemmy.ca on 11 Aug 01:32 collapse

But they’re much on fees cheaper than non-debit MasterCard and Visas?

Pjonathan@lemmy.world on 11 Aug 00:18 next collapse

Why do payment processors have the ability to control morality in our world? Easily the definition of a monopoly. Absolutely insane.

Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world on 11 Aug 02:31 next collapse

What about everyone buy a share of thier stock. Then sue thier board for ignoring thier fiduciary duty to the shareholders. Turning down business is bad for revenue… and the games that got removed probably made decent money all together.

KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 02:35 collapse

Make sure its not Class B

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today on 11 Aug 04:16 next collapse

did anyone mentioned that all these bans were all pushed by russel vought.

Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 11 Aug 09:16 collapse

I’m in Europe and following the news of the MasterCard and Visa censorship I activelly went looking for how else could I pay for things online without using their networks, and as it turns out there are plenty of solutions supported by both Steam and GOG which I was just ignoring before because they just looked as lots of “weirdly named” unrecognized payment options.

I’m now using those in my purchases and so far they actually look more convenient than the Visa/MasterCard (for example, with iDEA which is Dutch, I can literally pay from my mobile phone banking app by just taking a picture of a QR-Code on my screen). The problem in Europe is just there being lots of local solutions and no EU-wide one yet, though I’m lucky because I have bank accounts in different countries (having lived in several countries in Europe) so I have access to many options.

Keep in mind that outside Britain, the rest of Europe have long had their own debit card withdrawal and payment networks and not relied on Visa/MasterCard (to me Britain was, frankly, weird in that it relies on mainly VISA Debit and had no local payment solution, probably explained by lack of political will in the UK for that: most such payment networks in Europe were born out of political pressure on banks to come up with a standard and sometimes were even started as state-owned companies) so a lot of these local online payment options are extensions of those existing networks, which is probably why trying come up with an single integrated cross-border payment processor has been slow going.

That said, thanks to it having been mandated at the EU level, bank transfers are nowadays fully cross-border integrated and you can transfer money between accounts anywhere in EU with the same ease and for the same cost you can for local accounts (the banks really resisted that, by the way, as it took away most of their “international transfers” profits) so we’re probably not far from a single EU-wide payment processor (or at least EU-wide account support on existing solutions).