No so called "moral authority" has any business dictating their standards of "egregious" and "offensive' on anybody to begin with. I have no sympothy for everybody still ignoring the numerous canaries that have died in the coal mine.

Either companies like Steam or Visa BOTH CAN do whatever they want or BOTH CANNOT.

Either its freedom for EVERY business or for NONE.

You can't have it both ways, there is no cherry picking.

Originally posted by TheStoryteller01:

Either companies like Steam or Visa BOTH CAN do whatever they want or BOTH CANNOT.

Either its freedom for EVERY business or for NONE.

You can't have it both ways, there is no cherry picking.

Steam does not hold your money and then tell you what you are allowed to do with it.

But you are not going to listen.

Here's what's REALLY going to happen:

You will all make a huge stink about this for about a month.

Nothing will happen.

You will move on to the next big travesty.

Most people will forget about this whole debacle.

There is no line being drawn, no one is going to do anything that makes any difference. The big bad payment processors aren't going to notice at all, because they don't care and they know you can't and won't do anything about it.

They are going to keep coming for all the things you take for granted, and you are going to let them have it, ad infinitum, until there is nothing left, and all you are going to do is post about it until they take that too.

That's life.

Originally posted by TheStoryteller01:

Either companies like Steam or Visa BOTH CAN do whatever they want or BOTH CANNOT.

Either its freedom for EVERY business or for NONE.

You can't have it both ways, there is no cherry picking.

It's not just about "private companies" doing what they want; it's about the inescapable links between "Big Tech" and the State, and why that makes their censorship far more insidious.

This isn't your grandma's local bakery refusing service. We're talking about platforms like Steam, payment processors like Visa, and social media giants – entities that, thanks to years of crony capitalism, intellectual property monopolies, and often outright subsidies and regulatory capture, have achieved near-monopoly or oligopoly status. They didn't get there purely through "free market" competition; they got there with a lot of help from government intervention, often by crushing smaller competitors or erecting barriers to entry that make true competition impossible.

When these consolidated corporate giants then engage in censorship, deplatforming, or financial blacklisting, it's not merely a "private business decision." Because their power is so intertwined with state-granted privileges and market capture, their actions take on a quasi-governmental character. They become proxies for state control, or at least instruments through which statist agendas can be advanced without direct government fingerprints.

Think about it:

Regulatory Capture: Big Tech often helps write the very regulations that govern their industries, kneecapping potential competitors before they even start.

Intellectual Property: Draconian copyright and patent laws create artificial scarcity and protect massive corporate monopolies, actively preventing true market decentralization and the emergence of viable alternatives.

Surveillance & Data Sharing: The revolving door between intelligence agencies and Silicon Valley, coupled with constant pressure for data sharing, completely blurs the lines between corporate and state power.

De Facto Public Squares: When platforms become the dominant, almost unavoidable means of communication, their control over speech effectively becomes control over public speech, even if technically labeled "private."

So, when Visa cuts off a political organization, or Steam bans a game for "offensive content," this isn't simply "freedom of association" in action. It's concentrated corporate power, often derived from state privilege, being used to restrict the economic and communicative freedom of individuals. It's an end-run around constitutional protections against government censorship, performed by entities that are either tacitly cooperating with the state or operating with its blessing and protection.

You cannot have genuine free speech if the major arteries of communication and commerce are controlled by a handful of state-enabled corporate behemoths who can deplatform you at will. The solution isn't to empower the state to regulate them (which would just reinforce the problem), but to dismantle the state privileges that allow them to grow so powerful in the first place, fostering truly decentralized and competitive alternatives.

It's not "freedom for every business or none." It's "freedom for individuals, through genuinely free markets, unburdened by corporate-state collusion." The two-tiered system we have now, where Big Tech acts with impunity while claiming "private property" rights derived from public privilege, is antithetical to both free speech and true liberty.

Illegal content gets removed that's good for Steam.
Most of those cases you listed were removed because of the same US law that companies operating from the US need to follow.

Originally posted by Mr. Smiles:

Here's what's REALLY going to happen:

You will all make a huge stink about this for about a month.

Nothing will happen.

You will move on to the next big travesty.

Most people will forget about this whole debacle.

There is no line being drawn, no one is going to do anything that makes any difference. The big bad payment processors aren't going to notice at all, because they don't care and they know you can't and won't do anything about it.

They are going to keep coming for all the things you take for granted, and you are going to let them have it, ad infinitum, until there is nothing left, and all you are going to do is post about it until they take that too.

That's life.

It is not.

If a few activists screeching about it gets results, then a few million customers fighting back will also get results.

There is already a bill in Congress that aims to stop this. You already have the opportunity to fight back.

But you will not listen, until it is too late.

Originally posted by Jololo:

Illegal content gets removed that's good for Steam.
Most of those cases you listed were removed because of the same US law that companies operating from the US need to follow.

They were not. Title 18 already exempts all fiction from all censorship. There have already been two attempts to ban "obscene" material. They were both ruled unconstitutional.

But you will not listen. You will cheer as they shackle you.

Originally posted by ootdega:

It is not.

If a few activists screeching about it gets results, then a few million customers fighting back will also get results.

There is already a bill in Congress that aims to stop this. You already have the opportunity to fight back.

But you will not listen, until it is too late. :Histoire:

Then call your lawmakers and tell them to get their hinds in gear. I love a good government vs duopoly fight.

Let me know how it turns out.

Originally posted by Mr. Smiles:

Originally posted by ootdega:

It is not.

If a few activists screeching about it gets results, then a few million customers fighting back will also get results.

There is already a bill in Congress that aims to stop this. You already have the opportunity to fight back.

But you will not listen, until it is too late.

Then call your lawmakers and tell them to get their hinds in gear. I love a good government vs duopoly fight.

Let me know how it turns out.

I implore you to do the same, friend. I have already done this twice. I already have emailed both of my senators and the President himself about the censorship against us from every corporation weeks ago.

It isn't just payment processors. It is also Google itself. Google censors YouTube comments, and flags specific accounts based on what they say so they cannot say things that others can. Their comments are silently removed with no warning or notice.

Google hides search results, and it deliberately gives you zero results for things it doesn't want you to know. Instead of telling you what you want to know, it will give you propaganda. Gemini is not our friend.

Originally posted by ootdega:

Originally posted by Mr. Smiles:

Then call your lawmakers and tell them to get their hinds in gear. I love a good government vs duopoly fight.

Let me know how it turns out.

I implore you to do the same, friend. I have already done this twice. I already have emailed both of my senators and the President himself about the censorship against us from every corporation weeks ago.

It isn't just payment processors. It is also Google itself. Google censors YouTube comments, it hides search results, and it deliberately gives you zero results for things it doesn't want you to know. Gemini is not your friend.

At least someone is doing something real, good, I am actually glad you walk the walk.

Same can't be said about so many others.

You know, I hope something comes of it, i really do, but I've seen this song and dance so many times that I'm just out of any kind of hope.

Prove me wrong, please. I need to be wrong in this case...

Originally posted by Mr. Smiles:

Originally posted by ootdega:

I implore you to do the same, friend. I have already done this twice. I already have emailed both of my senators and the President himself about the censorship against us from every corporation weeks ago.

It isn't just payment processors. It is also Google itself. Google censors YouTube comments, it hides search results, and it deliberately gives you zero results for things it doesn't want you to know. Gemini is not your friend.

At least someone is doing something real, good, I am actually glad you walk the walk.

Same can't be said about so many others.

You know, I hope something comes of it, i really do, but I've seen this song and dance so many times that I'm just out of any kind of hope.

Prove me wrong, please. I need to be wrong in this case...

Your apathy is understandable. We are all very tired. But that is what they want.

Way to go collective shout, to remind us that far right conservatives are censorous &&&&'s too

I used to be on the right, now I just hate them both.

Originally posted by ootdega:

Originally posted by Mr. Smiles:

Here's what's REALLY going to happen:

You will all make a huge stink about this for about a month.

Nothing will happen.

You will move on to the next big travesty.

Most people will forget about this whole debacle.

There is no line being drawn, no one is going to do anything that makes any difference. The big bad payment processors aren't going to notice at all, because they don't care and they know you can't and won't do anything about it.

They are going to keep coming for all the things you take for granted, and you are going to let them have it, ad infinitum, until there is nothing left, and all you are going to do is post about it until they take that too.

That's life.

It is not.

If a few activists screeching about it gets results, then a few million customers fighting back will also get results.

There is already a bill in Congress that aims to stop this. You already have the opportunity to fight back.

But you will not listen, until it is too late. :Histoire:

First i'm hearing of this bill. Source?

Originally posted by ootdega:

Originally posted by Jololo:

Illegal content gets removed that's good for Steam.
Most of those cases you listed were removed because of the same US law that companies operating from the US need to follow.

They were not. Title 18 already exempts all fiction from all censorship. There have already been two attempts to ban "obscene" material. They were both ruled unconstitutional.

But you will not listen. You will cheer as they shackle you. :Histoire:

The famous american reading comprehension fiction can be censored by US law and has been censored