Content warning: This statement includes references to child sexual abuse and violence against women, without citing specific examples. Please read with care.

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain is concerned that pressure by payment processing companies such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Stripe to remove inappropriate content from videogame storefronts has resulted in the widespread censorship of legal content, particularly that produced by marginalised and underrepresented communities.

We are calling on the storefronts and the payment processing companies involved to review their actions to ensure that whilst appropriate measures are put in place to protect the public from illegal content, these steps do not result in the intentional, or accidental removal, delisting or censorship of legal material.

Illegal content, such as that depicting child sexual abuse, or violence against women, has no place in game storefronts. We of course support robust systems being put in place to prevent the distribution of such material and to allow for the prosecution of those involved.

However, it is also problematic to equate illegal material with either legal adult content, or the depiction or representation of marginalised communities. What is clear from the recent delisting of titles is that, whilst it has successfully removed illegal and offensive materials, it has also, intentionally, or unintentionally, led to the widespread removal, or delisting of legal works made by marginalised creators. For instance, titles from LGBTQ+ creators appear to have been delisted purely because they contain references to the LGTBQ+ community and not because such works contain material that could be categorised as either adult, or illegal.

A ‘trawler net’ approach to censorship has meant that games that depict healthy sexual relationships, or educate people about the epidemic of violence against women, or which examine how to survive and heal after abuse are being conflated with illegal material.  Restricting the access of age-verified adults to legal adult works can be harmful to many communities, including those that the laws are intended to protect.

To remedy these issues, the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain is calling on the storefronts and the payment processing companies involved to put in place a clear process that not only differentiates between illegal and legal content, but which ensures that marginalised and adult content creators are not silenced.

It is important that, while such processes should follow and enforce existing rating systems such as PEGI (Pan European Game Information), storefronts should also have a clear path that allows for the publication of titles that do not have such ratings. The cost of using formal rating systems is prohibitive to smaller companies, who are often those who speak the loudest for and best represent marginalised voices.

Whilst it is vital to protect society from illegal works, we are asking that storefronts and payment companies now take an active leadership role in protecting marginalised voices and ensuring that legal works are given a route to publication.

Any WGGB members who been affected by the censorship of their work can contact [email protected] for individual support and advice.

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