Itch.io appears to be scrambling for cover after credit card payment processors began pressuring it to remove or moderate its NSFW content, a move claimed to be at the behest of anti-porn groups like Collective Shout—an ongoing situation that's been causing a huge turmoil over the past week.
As part of compliance, Itch has been made to "deindex" many of its adult or NSFW games while it performs a review—not just porn or erotica, but games with adult, subversive, or suggestive themes.
While titillating games and art (that aren't about outright illegal things) have a right to exist in any sensible society that understands adults have sex, the situation has had a knock-on effect for LGBTQ+ and minority creators making less smutty work, too. As indie dev Jenny Jiao Hsia described it to me earlier this week, "Cutting these women off from income streams and audiences does nothing to 'protect' them."
In a recent follow-up FAQ, Itch has clarified that it's not only trying to get things even-keel as quickly as possible, it's also stated that it's seeking out other payment processors who don't faint after receiving 1,000 letters from anti-porn activists. Also, its response has been more chaotic because, simply put, it's a less regimented platform with less bargaining power than big brother Valve.
"The situation is evolving as we await final determinations from our current payment processors, Stripe and PayPal," the site writes. "There are still unknowns that prevent us from providing a fixed timeline.
"We are actively reaching out to other payment processors that are more willing to work with this kind of content. We have suspended the ability to pay with Stripe for 18+ content for the foreseeable future. Our immediate focus has been on content classification reviews and implementing stricter age-gating on the site."
As for why Itch's response was more dramatic than Steam's? It's down to scope: "Steam is a 'closed' platform where every product page is approved before it appears on the store. Because they were generally aware of the content they host, they could identify and act on specific pages.
"Itch.io is an open, 'UGC' (User-Generated Content) platform. With over 2 million product pages, anyone can publish content at any time with minimal barriers. We could not rely on user-provided tagging to be accurate enough for a targeted approach, so a broader review was necessary to be thorough."
As for why that review necessitated immediately deindexing games, Itch blinks twice to tell us it's in trouble: "Additionally, Itch.io is a small company, both in team size and in transaction volume, compared to a company like Steam. We have limited ability to 'push back.'"
The platform clarifies: "If we lose our ability to accept payments from a partner like PayPal or Stripe, we impact the ability of all creators to do business. Losing PayPal, for instance, would prevent us from sending payouts to many people. Our actions were taken to protect our payment processing abilities for as much of the platform as possible."
Itch also clears up a few misconceptions. While delisted content is par for the course, and some games have received a "content notice", the files for them should still be in the libraries of those who've purchased them, "assuming the creator has not taken down the page or removed the files themselves."
The FAQ adds: "Regardless of what happens, I personally recommend you maintain control over the content you own. Itch.io is a DRM-free platform from day 1 for this reason. Download and backup your games and don’t let any corporation dictate what you can own."
As for the site not processing payouts, Itch clarifies that it's been a long-standing policy for "bad-actor situations where a user joins the site and blatantly violates our terms to make sales before being banned", adding that it's always had a "zero-tolerance" attitude towards content that depicts minors performing sexual acts or real-life imagery.
Itch claims that any instances of this happening now "are a special circumstance. We have no interest in withholding anyone’s earnings. The measures we are taking now are to ensure we do not lose our relationships with our financial partners, which is necessary to continue paying creators without issue."
It does seem like the platform's been sandwiched between a rock and a hard place and, more importantly, is trying to walk the walk in stating that. In my reporting, I've seen some understandable lashing-out at Itch—and while I'd never claim any corporation or company, regardless of size, is your friend—it does seem like the site's been doing its level best to not sink its own ship.
Some things could've been handled better, surely, but I do not envy anyone at Itch right now—I envy the developers whose work is in jeopardy even less, who are themselves caught in the middle of a clear censorship campaign and governmental pushes by some countries to clamp down on mature content. Here's hoping for a return to normalcy soon.
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