Statement: https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/press/2025/august/clarifying-recent-headlines-on-gaming-content.html

Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations.

Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.

Media contact

Seth Eisen

seth.eisen@mastercard.com

  • seejur@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Of course, because when everyone buy a game on steam the FIRST thing it comes to their mind is the credit card brand they used. What a load of bullock.

    FFS I don’t even remember which one of my credit card I have saved on steam.

    MasterCard can go fuck themselves. Great job saving your brand

    • dogs0n@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Seriously rediculous, most people don’t even know if their card is Visa or Mastercard, nor do they care (because they dont know what they are or what they mean).

      (This is from my experience with people i know)

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Mastercard have changed their design so that it no longer says Mastercard on it, and it’s just the two circles. I bloody hate it, MasterCard thought they were able to get away with it because they thought they had brand recognition but literally no one cares about them.

        Also they’ve been fine with porn games up until now and literally no one cared.

    • bss03@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      I use Paypal and they charge my Discover (Novus network, IIRC). No MC policy issue, let me buy what I want.

      • zarathustrad@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        You do realize PayPal was just as involved in this as the rest right?

        PayPal didn’t send Valve any written content demands either, its acquiring bank did the enforcing just like MC, but PayPal was a named target of the campaign, got its Steam payment rail severed over the content issue, and ended up in the FTC’s crosshairs alongside the card networks.

        Also, PayPal’s aggressive posture toward adult-adjacent businesses predates this.

        The Erotic Review piece described PayPal freezing a subscription business for six months with “no appeal process, no recourse.” So PayPal cracking down on Steam over adult content wasn’t out of character; it was the largest-scale demonstration yet of a practice smaller publishers had already been living with.

        • BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s purely because steam hasn’t been able to keep my login info secure for almost a decade. I’ve changed emails, passwords, both, and yet I will always get random 2FA attempts from other places. I just don’t trust them to keep my bank info safe either.

          • zarathustrad@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            How do they manage to keep millions of other accounts uncompromised for over a decade, yet somehow it’s only you getting 2FAs? Seems unlikely.

          • Darkenfolk@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            I’m looking at this and I am just wondering… Did you also check the computers your using?

            It’s quite a bit easier to get in the pc of a normal user than it is to get into the computers of valve, or at least that’s to hope.

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Interesting. I’ve been using steam for decades and the only time my account was compromised was due to my own machine getting some malware. It was easy enough to clean up, reset password and reset all my steam sessions.

            Now my blizzard account on the other hand… I got so tired of defending it that I’ve cleared all my CC and personal info from the account and just decided to let the hackers have it. Their shit leaks bad.

      • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ah yes PayPal the completely benign brand that Elon was trying to shove the fact that he registered X dot com down our throats with decades ago

        e: didn’t realize it would link to that shithole