this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2025

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[Update: Valve Responds] Mastercard Denies Pressuring Steam To Censor 'NSFW' Games (kotaku.com)

submitted 15 hours ago by kid2908@slrpnk.net to c/games@lemmy.world

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Updated: 8/1/2025 4:18 p.m. ET: In a statement to Kotaku, a spokesperson for Valve said that while Mastercard did not communicate with it directly, concerns did come through payment processor and banking intermediaries. They said payment processors rejected Valve’s current guidelines for moderating illegal content on Steam, citing Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7.

“Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,” Valve’s statement sent over email to Kotaku reads. “Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks. Payment processors communicated this with Valve, and we replied by outlining Steam’s policy since 2018 of attempting to distribute games that are legal for distribution. Payment processors rejected this, and specifically cited Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7 and risk to the Mastercard brand.”

Rule 5.12.7 states, “A Merchant must not submit to its Acquirer, and a Customer must not submit to the Interchange System, any Transaction that is illegal, or in the sole discretion of the Corporation, may damage the goodwill of the Corporation or reflect negatively on the Marks.”

It goes on, “The sale of a product or service, including an image, which is patently offensive and lacks serious artistic value (such as, by way of example and not limitation, images of nonconsensual sexual behavior, sexual exploitation of a minor, nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part, and bestiality), or any other material that the Corporation deems unacceptable to sell in connection with a Mark.”

Violations of rule 5.12.7 can result in fines, audits, or companies being dropped by the payment processors.

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[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 128 points 11 hours ago (23 children)

Brilliant, just make your rules vague and force everyone else down the chain to self-censor. Surely this will result in the best outcome.

Fucking mastercard

[+] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone -28 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (16 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Up to the third comma, yes, but all the rest seems to go beyond that pretty arbitrarily.

When they say anything that "may damage the goodwill of the corporation", and qualify that with "in the sole discretion of the Corporation" that just means "anything we don't want to be associated with, and we will be the judge of that".

That's what makes it so vague, how is a Merchant or an Acquirer supposed to know what Mastercard might find damaging to the goodwill? They have to guess, or use trial and error*. Most will just err on the side of caution, which means customers get blocked from even more purchases, just to be safe.

* Or talk to Mastercard, which Valve apparently tried, but they wouldn't respond.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago

When they say anything that "may damage the goodwill of the corporation",

Looks like MasterCard is going to have to ban MasterCard because of all the damage they've done to MasterCard's goodwill.

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