Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down, but Valve says payment processors 'specifically cited' a Mastercard rule about damaging the brand
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There's multiple steps to this sadly, including the payment gateway, processor, acquirer and this is before even Mastercard, VISA, Amex or other card companies come into the picture.
It's not impossible, but Valve would need to convince the card issuers that they are a valid processor and then also make deals with banks all over the world for GWs. Or they could just act like Stripe and own the full stack and bully their way through the fintech world.
That, and I'm like 70% sure that as a payment processor you can't take your own payments in the way that valve would need to.
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Unfortunately Taler still needs a lot of maturing, but having a distributed payment system not running on that horrendous waste of time and energy that is the block chain is promising!
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Yeah I'm surprised they are not on board with Interac Debit in Canada.
Weird, either there's some backroom drama with Interac or now might be the time for you to ask their support about it.
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so this is a game of telephone between activists, payment cards, payment processors, and vendors.
Also TIL mastercard HQ is located in Purchase, NY.
Combining what Valve and Itch said, it seems like it's Stripe or PayPal, and they cited MasterCard's policies as justification...
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Direct link: Mastercard rule 5.12.7 Illegal or Brand-damaging Transactions
Tweet of their attempt to deny responsibility: great opportunity to wreck their brand.
Wtf are all these rules that I didn't agree to when getting a bank card?
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So that's kind of missing the point. First as I pointed out you don't actually have to buy anything to see the explicit preview images, so Steam is arguably in violation of those laws. Secondly the issue is that the Visa and Mastercard contracts require companies to be in compliance with local laws. It doesn't matter whether someone is using a Visa or Mastercard to make the actual payment if the purchase would technically be considered illegal (which it arguably could be in some states/countries under the new super strict porn laws).
At the end of the day this boils down to a) terms of the Visa/Mastercard contracts, and possibly b) new anti-porn laws that are putting an onerous burden on services to collect customers IDs in order to prove age. This isn't a question of common sense, in contract law (and law in general) it's about the letter of it and not so much the spirit. Yes, it stands to reason that if you legally own a credit card, and you must be at least 18 to own a card, then you are obviously 18 or older. However that doesn't matter at all when the laws are written such that services must validate age using a photo ID. It also does not account for stolen credit cards (never mind that that's a far more serious situation than the possibility of under age kids seeing some naughty pixels).
This whole situation is stupid and Visa and Mastercard clearly need to make some changes to their terms and conditions, but until they do from a legal standpoint businesses like Valve and Itch.io have their hands tied.
You're right, I didn't take account of the possibility that they can cancel your contract if you have anything "illegal" on your platform. I was only relating to MasterCards statement:
At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.
in context of "you have to be 18 or older to buy it". Juristic semantics can change that.
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Does DAI count?
What's DAI?
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Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations.
Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.
Media contact
Seth Eisen
Of course, because when everyone buy a game on steam the FIRST thing it comes to their mind is the credit card brand they used. What a load of bullock.
FFS I don't even remember which one of my credit card I have saved on steam.
MasterCard can go fuck themselves. Great job saving your brand
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Mastercard: worried about damaging brand
ALSO Mastercard: torpedos brand harder than the titan submersible implosion
Mastercard: We better not alienate our customers! Let's cave to these religious lunatics from Australia.
Mastercard: Becomes hated by gamers all over the world.
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Nobody on any side has cited any sections of any agreement specifically. The closest we've got is the statement from Stripe who is the payment processor who recently had to turn down business with a womens sexual education charity (despite spending months trying to get to an agreement) and the reason they cited was contractual obligations with banking networks including Visa and Mastercard. They stated they want to be able to process payments for porn companies, and that they're exploring other options, but they couldn't at this time.
Sounds like Visa and Mastercard have clauses in their contracts that they don't even care about themselves, but payment processors like Stripe are bound to then
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Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations.
Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.
Media contact
Seth Eisen
Get ready for Gilead.
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The trick is not actually buying anything.
Just using it for an id verification.
On a site that actually doesn't cost anything.
It could be done, over a 56k modem, guess how I know?
Oh, that wasn't even a thing back in my day. At first there was no age verification, then it became the familiar "Are you 18? [Yes] [No]" system we all know and love.
Well I suppose there was ID checks at the store, but ykwim.
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Payment processing is one of those things that really should have been treated as a public utility from the start. The same way we treat water, electricity, and phone lines. But even getting the internet treated as a utility has been a losing battle thus far.
Only problem with a public utility like that now would be Trump and his Insane Cunt Posey would weaponize it for the religious right.
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Of course, because when everyone buy a game on steam the FIRST thing it comes to their mind is the credit card brand they used. What a load of bullock.
FFS I don't even remember which one of my credit card I have saved on steam.
MasterCard can go fuck themselves. Great job saving your brand
A bullock is a steer. You wanted bollocks.
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Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations.
Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.
Media contact
Seth Eisen
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Of course, because when everyone buy a game on steam the FIRST thing it comes to their mind is the credit card brand they used. What a load of bullock.
FFS I don't even remember which one of my credit card I have saved on steam.
MasterCard can go fuck themselves. Great job saving your brand
Seriously rediculous, most people don't even know if their card is Visa or Mastercard, nor do they care (because they dont know what they are or what they mean).
(This is from my experience with people i know)
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Oh, that wasn't even a thing back in my day. At first there was no age verification, then it became the familiar "Are you 18? [Yes] [No]" system we all know and love.
Well I suppose there was ID checks at the store, but ykwim.
IIRC, I genuinely, accidentally, first discovered internet porn on an elementary school computer, as a 5th grader.
Tried to go to the website for the whitehouse.
Turns out, the real website is whitehouse.gov, not whitehouse.com
At the time... yep, whitehouse.com was hardcore porn, this was way before school network admins... really even existed? muchless had any kind of url/ip blacklists.
So yep very old school, early days, near-miss or adjacent url hoarding... I think that would have been all the way back when expedia, yahoo, askjeeves were all still competetive search engines, and I am pretty sure I was using Netscape Navigator, hahahah!
Anyway, I was quite shocked, rofl, having grown up thus far literally going to church every weekend, being told by my parents that I couldn't participate in the school Halloween festivities, as that was a 'Satanic' holiday.
Hooray fundamentalist upbringing!
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But what was "illegal"? I mean, if we're applying real life laws to video games, that completely removes any game where violence is portrayed, GTA, Sonic the hedgehog, animal cruelty in super Mario. That's why they are GAMES.
dumbasses. All of them.
No more RISK. Too violent. Should probably ban Clue while we’re at it.
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Of course, because when everyone buy a game on steam the FIRST thing it comes to their mind is the credit card brand they used. What a load of bullock.
FFS I don't even remember which one of my credit card I have saved on steam.
MasterCard can go fuck themselves. Great job saving your brand
I don’t have any credit cards saved on steam. I only use PayPal for steam purchases.
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I don’t have any credit cards saved on steam. I only use PayPal for steam purchases.
I'd rather pay with my actual blood than use PayPal.
