Anti-Steam Censorship Petition Hits a Massive Milestone

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As an ardent advocate, I’m thrilled to share that the current anti-Steam censorship movement I’ve been following has garnered a staggering 200,000 signatures and shows no signs of abating! This momentum not only overshadows the initial petition but also outdid its goal of enforcing Steam censorship, a wish that was eventually granted by payment processors.

Following Valve’s decision to remove numerous adult games from Steam in July 2025, I, along with countless other Steam enthusiasts, found myself joining forces on a change.org petition advocating for freedom of content. In just a few days, this grassroots movement gathered thousands of signatures, mirroring the wave of online protest ignited by the Australian activist group Collective Shout, who had successfully pressured payment processors to aid in the removal of certain fetish games.

New Steam Petition Triples the Support of Pro-Censorship Activists in Much Less Time

In the ten days that passed, the anti-Steam censorship petition experienced a significant surge. On July 22, it had approximately 16,000 signatures; by August 2 (ET), it had swelled to nearly 224,000. To give you an idea of its pace, in just over two weeks, the petition garnered more than three times the number of signatures that Collective Shout’s campaign did in a span of four months. The petition has sustained its momentum, with its change.org page displaying a substantial and continually expanding list of media coverage and social media focus.

Steam Users Accuse Visa and MasterCard of Hypocrisy, Not Separating Games from Reality

Since its initiation in mid-July 2025, the petition has undergone numerous revisions. The primary focus of these updates has been to reinforce its initial arguments. A significant point emphasized is the perception that payment processors are acting hypocritically by selectively sanctioning certain content, such as digital characters in legal contexts, while neglecting industries like pornography. Critics of these ‘activist groups’ argue that they do not represent everyone’s views, according to Zero Ryoko, the petition’s creator.

These “activist groups” do not speak for everyone.

So far, Steam has taken down over 400 games classified as adult content, as part of a continuous crackdown on explicit material. The advocacy group Collective Shout argues that the removal focuses mainly on the most extreme forms of fetish content, including topics like incest, sexual assault, and child abuse. Critics, however, see this argument as irrelevant. Ryoko, in his initial petition, stated that fiction should not be equated with reality. He also emphasized that artistic expression and market freedom should be valued and safeguarded in a thriving, democratic society.

In a recent move, Itch.io has started concealing all mature content from its search results for manual review to comply with ambiguous regulations set by payment processors. This platform, known for hosting indie games, is actively looking for new transaction partners who won’t impose moral standards on lawful content. However, since Valve is quite substantial and relies heavily on Visa and MasterCard for global transactions (excluding China), it’s unlikely to willingly abandon these giants. Since no single alternative seems feasible at Valve’s scale, replacing them would presumably involve integrating with multiple smaller regional processors instead.

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2025-08-03 02:46