This Group Takes Responsibility for Steam’s Payment Processor Censorship Policies — They Just Implied ‘Pervert Nerds’ Cause Society’s Problems

Yesterday, I discussed Steam’s new payment processor policies impacting artistic expression on Valve’s storefront. According to guidelines published by Valve in the company’s Steamworks Documentation page, Steam warns against publishing “content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors,” its “related card networks and banks,” and its “internet network providers.” While vague, Valve has suggested the violating content applies to “certain kinds of adult only content.” Games featuring sexual themes around incest were removed from Steam recently, according to SteamDB.

Adult content creators, gamers, and concerned bystanders originally claimed the responsible party was a little-known anti-porn organization named “Collective Shout.” Now, the group is claiming responsibility for Steam’s new payment processor policies, with its co-founder calling impacted gamers “porn sick” and “brain rotted.” In one case, the organization even retweeted a notoriously anti-trans feminist who declared that “pervert nerds are responsible for most of society’s ills.” The retweeted feminist, a self-described “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” proceeded to write under her post, “Evidence #1: trans.”

“Since we launched our campaign calling on Payment Processors to stop facilitating payments for rape, incest, sexual torture and child-abuse themed games on Steam, they have added a new rule to their policies + removed hundreds of these games,” Collective Shout tweeted early this morning. “We counted almost 500 games tagged with rape and incest on Monday, and at our last count, there are 82 left. We want them all gone.”

Steam, ‘no mercy’, and a call to target itch.io

Collective Shout’s campaign to pressure payment processors began far before the summer. In April 2025, the organization called upon Valve to remove the controversial adult visual novel No Mercy from its store. No Mercy featured themes of incest and nonconsent. That same month, Collective Shout took responsibility for the game’s removal from Steam, thanking its supporters and vowing to “press on.” Making good on its word, Collective Shout returned to focus on the gaming industry in late May, claiming it had found “hundreds of rape, incest, and child-abuse themed games” on Steam and itch.io. In the post, Collective Shout demanded Skrill, JCB, Discover, MasterCard, PayPal, Visa, and PaysafeCard to “stop facilitating rape/child abuse game sales.”

Collective Shout remained on top of the issue, with an open letter published on July 11th and a news post on July 14th, stressing that payment processors must “cease facilitating and profiting from sales transactions for rape, incest, and child abuse-themed games.” The organization claimed its open letter was signed by “leading global anti-sexual exploitation organizations and individuals,” with a particular focus on Steam, independent gaming storefront itch.io, and “any other platforms hosting similar games.”

Collective Shout’s claims seem a bit… strange

It remains unclear which games supposedly involve “child abuse” on Steam. Traditionally, Valve has heavily scrutinized adult titles for publication, with a strong stance against games featuring childlike characters in sexual situations. In 2020, Valve briefly removed an all-ages release of a MangaGamer visual novel, claiming an adult scene with underage characters was hidden within the game’s files. The title was later reinstated after the offending files were removed, although MangaGamer denied that the scene in question depicted an underage character. Nonetheless, if a hidden, inaccessible file in a game’s depot sparked a brief removal of a visual novel title, it’s worth considering how “child abuse” games could be published on Steam. Waypoint has reached out to Collective Shout and Steam for comment.

Without further proof from Collective Shout on the supposed games in question, it’s hard to say whether child or childlike characters existed in any of the games targeted by the organization. It’s certainly plausible that Collective Shout is disingenuously describing adult anime characters in adult video games as underage. In 2020, creators warned Patreon was banning adult anime artists based off reductive classifications for deeming adult-appearing anime characters as underage. Again, it remains unclear if similar values and perspectives are at play with Collective Shout.

Nonetheless, gamers do have much to fear with Collective Shout, given the organization is set to call on the removal of 82 more games. It’s unclear if the group will stop pressuring payment processors if it accomplishes its goals — or whether the organization will continue to police content available on video game storefronts. Given the organization has also called on Elon Musk to ban NSFW content from Twitter altogether? It’s likely the group will continue to push for further censorship of adult material, emboldened by its Steam victory.