Itch, the platform synonymous with small, weird and wonderful indie video games (along with other stuff like comics and books), “deindexed” nearly all of its Not Suitable For Work content yesterday, without warning.
The abrupt move, which not only deprived users and creators of many of the site's works but for many cut off a source of income, was finally explained hours later in a blog post from Itch's staff, titled “Update on NSFW content”.
"We have 'deindexed' all adult NSFW content from our browse and search pages", the blog states. "We understand this action is sudden and disruptive, and we are truly sorry for the frustration and confusion caused by this change."
"Recently, we came under scrutiny from our payment processors regarding the nature of some content hosted on itch.io", they go on to explain. "Due to a game titled No Mercy, which was temporarily available on itch.io before being banned back in April, the organization Collective Shout launched a campaign against Steam and itch.io, directing concerns to our payment processors about the nature of certain content found on both platforms."
While deindexing NSFW content--which means removing the ability for users to search for it or have it featured for them--is a major step for the site to take so quickly, Itch explains that the suddenness of the move was down to a situation that “developed rapidly”:
Our ability to process payments is critical for every creator on our platform. To ensure that we can continue to operate and provide a marketplace for all developers, we must prioritize our relationship with our payment partners and take immediate steps towards compliance.
This is a time critical moment for itch.io. The situation developed rapidly, and we had to act urgently to protect the platform’s core payment infrastructure. Unfortunately, this meant it was not realistic to provide creators with advance notice before making this change. We know this is not ideal, and we apologize for the abruptness of this change.
Not every page, game or other work will be affected permanently; Itch say that they took everything down so that they could perform a "comprehensive audit", and that once this is done they'll introduce new “compliance measures”, which will "will include a new step where creators must confirm that their content is allowable under the policies of the respective payment processors linked to their account".
Those works that are affected permanently will be removed from the site entirely.
All of which sounds incredibly dystopian; the idea that faceless, unaccountable payment processors--which enjoy vast monopolies over the world's commerce, and by extension its marketplaces--can wield their power so swiftly, as they've increasingly been doing now for years, is downright terrifying.
Itch's emergency deindexing comes only days after a similar effort by Valve, which saw changes made to Steam's policies and the removal of a number of adult titles from the platform's marketplace. In both cases, the lobby group Collective Shout has either taken credit (in Valve's case) or, as Itch have stated, been linked to the removals.
