LB's Banned Books Sale

[nevanna]

The recent wave of censorship affecting itch.io has consequently targeted my friends, the very talented lb_lee, and they're selling signed and decorated copies of their work. You can read more here about what happened and what they're offering. (Content warning for non-explicit talk of child abuse, which is the subject of the comic that got suspended.)

This rancid business is reminding me even more of Strikethrough (an mass deletion of LiveJournals in the 2000s, which affected communities of abuse survivors as well as fandom blogs) than it did already.

(I have edited this post to correct some previous misleading language, since another friend has reminded me that the directive to remove controversial material from platforms like itch.io comes from payment processors, not the platform itself.)

Comments

[someonefromthewater]

Don't want to comment on their post or call out LB, but this is a payment processor issue, not itch.io's censorship. They have to comply with the law. :( itch.io is a million times better than the other alternatives (Steam/Valve, GoG/CD Projekt RED, Microsoft, Sony, Apple, Google) as a distribution platform and I support the hell out of them as a company, but they attracted a lot of indie zinesters who got shafted due to the porn overlap. Have a lot of sympathies for what their community managers must be going through.

https://tenforward.social/@packetcat/114922326246976341 has good context.

[nevanna]

Thank you for pointing that out. I was somewhat aware of that distinction, and I think LB probably were too, but I could have been more precise in talking about it. I’ll correct the entry when I get a chance.

[someonefromthewater]

Thanks! Yeah, people are dogpiling itch.io a bit and feel bad for their community managers, but it's really more Visa/Mastercard having a duopoly, and Valve is certainly no better.

See https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/valve-pushes-back-after-mastercard-denies-quashing-adult-content-on-game-platforms