Last week,Steamrevealed that it may startremoving games that violate rules put forward by third parties, such as banks and internet service providers. Around the same time, it was spotted that some adult games were removed from Steam, marking a huge change in practice for a storefront that typically allows all kinds of controversial material on its platform.
Collective Shout, a so-called feminist group that is anti-pornography (with a founder who is anti-abortion), claimed responsibility for this change on Steam and the removal of the games. In astatement, it revealed that it had put pressure on payment processors to tell Steam to remove games containing inc*st and sexual abuse.
Steam Was Seemingly Pressured Into Removing Adult Games By Anti-P*rn And Anti-Abortion Groups
“Steam appears to be working through its games and slowly delisting titles tagged with rpe or incst,” the statement reads. “On Monday, we counted almost 500 games tagged with rpe or incst. Today, there are 81. We want to see them all gone!”
The claim that almost 500 games have been removed from Steam for including rpe and incst has been disputed by sources such asPC Gamer.
However, this is far from the first time that Collective Shout has targeted video games, and previously, with very dubious claims. Ana Valens reported as much for Vice, but then found that her article had been taken down (accessible via theWayback Machine), reportedly for concerns around the subject matter. However, her findings about Collective Shout are all publicly available, showing how the group doesn’t just limit its campaigning to controversial p*rn games on Steam.
In 2018, it shared apetitionthat called for stores to stop sellingDetroit: Become Humanin Australia for depicting child abuse, even though it condemns the act and has the player fight the abuser.
“Family violence is a big issue in this country and is not something that should ever be considered entertainment,” the petition reads. “Shame on SONY for allowing the release of such filth, and I call on Australia to take a stand against it and ban it from sales on our shores.”
Previously, the groupcampaignedagainstGTA 5for allowing players to kill female NPCs. In the petition, they cited an instance of a player purposely killing a sex worker.
Valen’s reporting also highlights how the campaign against Steam was co-signed by other groups, including the US-based National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). This group takes its efforts further, and is against comprehensive sex education and the sale of sex toys, having previouslycelebratedEtsy’s ban of items such as adult sex dolls. Similarly, it has led acampaignagainst HuniePop, calling on Steam to remove the game.
All of this is to say that Collective Shout, NCOSE, and similar anti-p*rn groups are unlikely to stop at these easier targets. Given the wording of the concession made by Steam, all a group would have to do is get a payment processor on its side, and any game could be removed - and the groups have a history of misrepresenting a game and its contents.
At the time of writing, the original report is still unavailable on Vice. It remains to be seen if the group is successful in having more games removed from Steam.
