Australian anti-porn group claims responsibility for Steams new censorship rules

Summary

Collective Shout, an Australian anti-pornography group, has claimed credit for Steam's recent removal of a large number of sexually explicit games and new, stricter moderation guidelines regarding such material. In a statement to PC Gamer, Valve cited pressure from payment processors like credit card companies and Paypal for the move, while Collective Shout touted its open letter and consumer campaign targeting payment processors for inciting that pressure.This was first reported by Waypoint, which has since pulled its two articles on the subject without explanation. The articles' author, Ana Valens, has alleged that Vice's parent company, Savage Ventures, removed the articles due to concerns over their controversial content rather than any error in the reporting.Collective Shout began in 2009, co-founded by self-described "pro-life feminist" Melinda Tankard Reist. Collective Shout describes itself as "A grassroots campaigning movement against the objectification of women and sexualization of girls in media, advertising, and popular culture". To date, it has been involved in:Unsuccessful efforts to ban Snoop Dogg and Eminem from Australia.A successful 2015 campaign to prevent Tyler the Creator from touring Australia.A successful 2015 campaign to pressure Target and Kmart to stop selling Grand Theft Auto 5 in Australia.A petition to ban the game No Mercy from sale, which ultimately led to the developers pulling it from Steam.An unsuccessful petition to ban Detroit: Become Human from sale in Australia.On July 7, Collective Shout shared an update to its No Mercy Change.org campaign calling on supports to email payment processors (including PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, and Discover) to demand that they "cut ties with Steam and itch.io" over "hundreds of r*pe, incest, and child-abuse games." This was followed by an open letter from Collective Shout asking that they "immediately cease processing payments on Steam and itch.io and any other platforms hosting similar games."Col...