Gamers Flood Visa and Mastercard with Calls to Fight Adult Game Censorship
Visa and Mastercard are currently facing a wave of gamer backlash following recent censorship moves by major game storefronts like Steam and itch.io. Players upset about the removal and restriction of adult games are now targeting the payment processors they believe are behind these changes.
- Gamers organize mass emails and phone calls to Visa and Mastercard
- Protests sparked by Steam and itch.io limiting adult game sales
- Calls and emails aim to overwhelm customer service and get executives’ attention
- Payment processors respond with standard policy statements
- Activist group Collective Shout also involved in pushing for censorship
Gamers Take Action Against Payment Processors
Following Steam and itch.io’s decisions to restrict adult content, many gamers have rallied to protest what they see as censorship. The key targets? Visa and Mastercard. These payment giants are seen as the root cause since both storefronts cited fears of losing payment processing capabilities as a main reason for cracking down on adult games.
On platforms like Reddit and Bluesky, gamers are sharing tips on how to flood Visa and Mastercard’s customer service lines with calls and emails. The goal isn’t necessarily to speak to a decision-maker but to create enough disruption that the companies can’t ignore the issue. One popular suggestion is to stay on hold for hours and even use call-back options to clog queues.
“Emails can be ignored, but a very very long queue making it near impossible for other clients to get in will help a lot as well,” a top Reddit comment explains. Another user advises, “Do both. Get the call back, to gum up the call back queue. Then call in again and wait to gum up the live queue.”
Payment Processors Respond
Visa and Mastercard have been receiving these complaints and calls but mostly respond with standard replies emphasizing their policies. A typical message from Visa states:
Thank you for reaching out and sharing your perspective. As a global company, we follow the laws and regulations everywhere we do business. While we explicitly prohibit illegal activity on our network, we are equally committed to protecting legal commerce. If a transaction is legal, our policy is to process the transaction. We do not make moral judgments on legal purchases made by consumers. Visa does not moderate content sold by merchants, nor do we have visibility into the specific goods or services sold when we process a transaction. When a legally operating merchant faces an elevated risk of illegal activity, we require enhanced safeguards for the banks supporting those merchants. For more information on Visa’s policies, please visit our network integrity page on Visa.com. Thank you for writing.
Despite the flood of messages, customer service reps often say they can’t directly influence these decisions but acknowledge they’ve heard the complaints.
Organized Campaigns and Activist Involvement
The protests are well-coordinated. Gamers are encouraged to remain polite, especially to frontline workers who aren’t responsible for policy decisions. Resources like scripts and contact details are shared to help participants stay effective.
Meanwhile, Collective Shout, an activist group focused on opposing games featuring non-consensual violence against women, has also been pushing for these changes. They claim to have petitioned Steam and payment processors for months and say itch.io went further by deindexing adult-themed games, affecting even some LGBT content. You can read Collective Shout’s statement and timeline of events here.
On Reddit, gamers report customer service reps shifting from confusion to assuring that concerns are “heard.” One user said, “I will be calling them again in a few days to see if there is any progress on changing the situation.”
Perhaps the situation is best summed up by another Reddit comment: “There’s really only 2 things that can unite Gamers: hate campaigns and gooning.”
For more context on the community efforts, check out this Reddit thread:
people are calling to complaint directly to visa
byu/rost400 inSteam
And another popular discussion here:
Just called Visa, I would encourage others to do the same but make sure to be respectful.
byu/KaedeSunshine inSteam
Also, a user’s post on Bluesky about pretending to be confused customers can be found here:
Currently on the phone with VisaInstead of starting with a complaint, I approached this as a Confused American Consumer who doesn't understand why they can't buy things off a website they useThe call center rep immediately asked if it was about Steam/itch(cont)
— A.L. Goldfuss (@ghoulpus.bsky.social) 2025-07-26T20:53:29.694Z
