The price of being naked online

Steam, Mastercard, and the quiet crackdown on nude expression

This summer, without fanfare, Steam began purging adult games from its platform—not because of new laws, but because of pressure from the companies that handle your credit card. Around the same time, Itch.io followed suit, citing concerns from payment processors. Fansly also recently updated its terms to restrict furry and hypnosis content. And last week, a new ACLU petition began circulating with fresh urgency, targeting Mastercard for its restrictive regulatory policies.

None of this was a coincidence. What we’re witnessing is a new chapter in the slow, systemic erasure of online nudity—not just pornography, but any expression that nudges against puritanical norms. At the heart of it all are financial gatekeepers like Mastercard and Visa, whose behind-the-scenes rules quietly reshape what platforms allow, what creators can publish, and who gets paid. Sex work is merely the scapegoat. What this is really about about is controlling art, about silencing speech, and about hegemonizing who gets to show their body—and who doesn’t.