Collective Shout, a small but vocal lobby group, has long called for a mandatory internet filter that would prevent access to adult content for everyone in Australia. Its director, Melinda Tankard Reist, was recently appointed to the stakeholder advisory board for the government’s age assurance technology trial before the under-16s social media ban comes into effect in Australia in December.
When is the European alternative to these coming?
Do you mean digital euro? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_euro
This would be the only thing that could break visa mastercard duopol. Hopefully 2028
An alternative to PayPal, called WERO is currently in it’s rollout process in Germany, Belgium and France. In October the next step will be activated, allowing payments in e-commerce. Later down the road, you’ll be able to pay in real shops. Luxembourg and Netherlands are to join in next. More and more banks start to adopt WERO.
I urge everyone to use WERO as much as you can. It’s flying a bit under the radar at the moment and this must be a success. Hopefully more EU members will join soon.
I would prefer if the EU/Swiss backed project based on GNU Taler makes it instead: https://www.taler.net/en/ngi-taler.html
True but 2 > 1
shiiiit I wouldn’t count on that anymore. With the age verification and ID stuff they would honestly at this point probably make it worse.
I used to be an advocate for European alternatives for US based tech companies but now? no way, started self hosting everything. it sucks.
an eu alternative would be just as susceptible to hate campaigns by bigots censoring content… look at the uk and the terfs (i know technically the uk isn’t the eu but they’re still europe)
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Don’t be fooled, that’s not the real reason. Parents that shove iPads in front of their children are not even remotely worried about what their kids are watching online. This is purely about control, has nothing to do with children.
Governments and some religious nutjobs.
They only pretend to care about children. It is about power and control. Always has been, always will.
Keep the pressure on.
Collective Shout got them to change their position and they’re a small group. We are legion, as the kids say
We are legion, as the kids say
God I’m old lmao
That’s something we all have to remember. We have to be just as vocal as these idiots or they take over. They are not the majority, they are only the most vocal.
And we’re the ones spending the money
That’s really what I don’t get. Why make it impossible for people to give you money. That doesn’t seem to be the way capitalism is supposed to operate if something is popular then you should allow it.
They’re the ones at risk of losing money if they get sued by reintroducing said content. You’re not going to stop using the payment processors because there’s literally no other option. This is performative.
Sued for what? They aren’t stopping illegal content from being sold. That, as is implied by the word “illegal”, was already not allowed on these stores. They’re stopping legal, but potentially (not my opinion) objectionable, content from being sold. There’s no legal risk for allowing it.
I’m not saying there is illegal content. Read my comment.
I’m saying the possibility of there being illegal content only exists if they allow the reintroduction of those titles. They’d need trust in the store moderation, in the lack of bad faith actors, in a lot of things.
And it would be an absolutely stupid business decision for them.
I am NOT condoning what they did, nor what they are doing. I am explaining, from their business perspective, why allowing potentially illegal content back on the platform is a non-argument and you cannot convince them otherwise.
I’m saying the possibility of there being illegal content only exists if they allow the reintroduction of those titles.
Again, no. If there were illegal content before then it’s already breaking the rules. If you’re breaking rules once, why would adding more rules change anything?
They’d need trust in the store moderation, in the lack of bad faith actors, in a lot of things.
What? Yeah, the store moderators have to enforce the rules. I don’t know what this has to do with anything. Illegal or just banned, they have to be removed by the moderators. What difference does it make? This doesn’t make any sense. Adding more rules doesn’t magically remove the content. Moderators still have to do it. If they weren’t doing it for illegal content, why would they do it for only banned but legal content?
The reason they did it is because they were pressured by a weird group who has a lot of influence. It wasn’t because they were worried about illegal content, which is obvious because that’s not the rule they applied. If the rule was “you’re not allowed to sell illegal content” (which is obviously always true) then it’d be fine. Instead they made a rule for not allowing specific types of legal content.
You’re not great at risk assessment, are you?
They have a risky move, which in 1/10000 cases leads to an illegal game being paid for through their payment platform.
And they have a safe move, where this never happens. Literally.
If the expected risk is positive in case 1, they will opt for case 2.
You must at least be able to understand this simple logic, right? If not, then I’m afraid this conversation is over because you’re not even remotely trying to understand their logic, and you’re just looking for a reason to be mad. Your irrationality makes me nauseous.
Somebody should check their PCs and internet history; after all, name a better duo than Conservatives and Projection.
Batman and Robin are a way better duo.
I mean, they actually try to do good and oppose nazis instead of be them.
I’d bet real money that the CEO of Collective Shout has CSAM on one or more of their computers.
I would put ten dollars on it.
I’m all in! Three fiddy for the pool
I don’t know how to gamble but here are the keys to my car! 🗝️ As they say in spy movies, I’m in.
The bookies wouldn’t even give you numbers on that. You can’t bet on a sure thing.
Maybe it’s just because I’m so focused on my own issues as a US citizen… But how the hell did some Australian Christofascist group get this powerful? Like, the RIAA and MPAA combined couldn’t get the United States government to make this much movement on “objectionable content” (piracy at the time, and also now, and all of the time between then and now), but even the crypto fascists of yesterday year couldn’t get this much traction. Probably because people like Frank Zappa and Fred Rogers came forth to criticize the ridiculousness and the consequences of such a position and search policies.
May 1, 1969: Fred Rogers testifies before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications
And 16 years later:
Probably because they didnt go throught the government, which takes a long time to move on anything, and just put pressure on some profit seeking corporations that just want to get a bother to go away, but which also unfortunately have been put in a position of practical power equal to some types of legislation.
But how the hell did some Australian Christofascist group get this powerful?
It’s Australia, we only laugh when China does it, otherwise it must be good if we’re doing it.
Want to have backdoors to chat apps, done, allow the siezure and forced unlocking of computers and phones at the border, done. Inter refigees in our own offshore concentrarion camps for decades until they suicide and make it illegal to report on, done. Regularly kill our first nations peoples amd have the jailed ? Done. We’re a fucken’ embarrassment!
They got together enough people to mass email, that is all it took.
Companies tend to multiply received responses to represent the total number of people who were to lazy to complain, so Visa and MasterCard saw 1,000 emails as 10,000,000 in their risk averse actions.
Now 4chan is pissed and have started their own mass email and phonecall campaign, so we shall see where this goes…
Sounds like we’re fighting back with the same technique! Good enough for me!
Mass emailed didn’t exist in 1969 nor in 1985.
Wherever you went to school, those teachers should be shot.
Maybe read those two comments again, then read your response.
Your reading skills are not what you think they are.
I think you should take your own advice. Just because you lack the intelligence to understand my comment doesn’t mean I’m the one to blame.
Blocked for having shit for brains
Mate you didn’t read the comment right. You might want to check yourself while you reck yourself.
You need a hug or something?
I feel sorry for you
This is some low effort trolling, isn’t it?
Urghs, you are really aggressive and kind of pathetic so thank you for blocking me.
Who do you even email for that? mastercard@gmail.com?
I assume they own their own domain.
gmail@com.mastercard
Visa also have a fairly well documented history of kowtowing to Christian groups. The CEO of their Asian division is a right-wing religious fanatic who hates, well he’s a religious fanatic so you know what he hates, but it’s basically everything and everybody.
They don’t like Japanese anime very much as well, probably because they think it’s all pornography (anime does tend to have that bent, but it’s not all pornography).
The thing is on their website they claim not to make moral judgements about purchasers, they claim to authorise anything that isn’t actually illegal, so they should be totally fine with pornography and anime. If they are going to be right-wing religious fundamentalists at least they could be honest about it on their website.
What are the alternatives to Visa/Mastercard?
In Italy, there’s a debit card circuit called PagoBancomat.
Italy also has a digital-only payment system called Satispay. Denmark and Finland have MobilePay (which is way better than Satispay). Sweden has Swish.
Your country may have something similar, look it up. And then you can always pay with PayPal by connecting your bank account directly, with no cards involved (at least in Europe).
Discover, American Express, Diner’s Club, and the one that still rules them all, Cash. There are probably others, but Visa and Mastercard are the two largest.
How do I transfer my cash to online stores?
You can in Japan apparently. They have a system where you can go to convenience store and pay by scanning a code
You can also sorta use zelle, but the technical integration is not great. It’s a very manual process as it is
Ultimately, the problem is we let two companies dominate commerce itself. We just need to let the governmet do payment processing, and require compatibility
Japan also accepts bank transfer for online payments. So you don’t even need to leave your house.
How hard can you throw?
Amex gift cards. Cashapp uses Block(Square) for their payment processing, which is easier to use because you can transfer funds to that from your bank.
Interac if you’re Canadian, and if the store accepts e-transfers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interac
Discover and Diners Club merged a few years ago btw. Discover also has an alliance with JCB.
So Discover network is actually really, really big.
Diners Club is Discover, and they got bought up by Capital One a couple months ago. So you’ll only really have Amex left.
What’s wrong with Capital One? I feel like Discover/Capital One / Diner’s Club network is a good thing for Discover customers.
What benefits would Discover customers get from Capital One’s acquisition? Discover acceptance in the US has been almost on-par with Visa/MC for many many years.
Amex is expensive as fuck for shop owners. I’d boycott them too.
It’s more visa and MasterCard are cheaper by abusing their duopoly and connections. While amex is the normal costs.
Visa and MasterCard really are the only two you see in Europe
There are a lot of places going cashless these days. Heck some of my kids friend went to target and couldn’t buy anything because target didn’t have the staff to run anything but the self checkout, which at this place didn’t accept cash. They had to leave empty-handed.
At the cost of a less stable value, you can convert your currency to BTC, store it on a physical wallet like those made by Ledger and self-host BTCPay Server to make receiving money easier (alt cryptocurrency available via integrations). As for spending, that depends entirely on the recipient cooperating and accepting BTC.
No thanks. It’s not for me.
Unfortunately crypto is already complicated as is. And as the other user said bitcoin isn’t the best choice. Monero would be as close to the overall goal as it is possible.
Now using monero would be more anonymous than credit/debit cards making it a better option - but not many vendors support it, and cash is just simpler than any other option.
I want to buy a game online. How do I use cash?
Go to your local store and buy a Steam gift card.
Whoah whoah whoah! They need to keep that cash in a wallet, don’t wave it around, look out for pickpockets, don’t carry too much, and a slew of other common sense things that I won’t list now but will mock you for not doing later.
How is an even more niche process that involves having to go to an exchange to buy crypto then safe guard it and it being a taxable event when buying goods with it in some countries a solution?
People are wanting a mainstream alternative that the companies that they buy from use, and if the companies don’t care to use it then it doesn’t matter for the average person.
Even people actually into crypto are less interested in spending it because it exposes their balance if they aren’t using coin mixers or monero which can make them a target. Not to mention most just see it as stock they hope goes to the moon as opposed to going through the cumbersome process of buying for the purpose of spending it like a depreciating asset.
Didn’t know that, thanks
In Canada, I’d like to see Interac develop into one. Hopefully more prominence wouldn’t ruin in
Fuck Collective Shout, or anyone spreading censorship!
Let’s say it like it is: after the world of hundreds of developers is undermined, and the property of thousands of customers is compromised.
Let’s keep up the pressure
Good on her parents for putting Tankard in her name since you need at least one to deal with her bullshit. Bad on them for releasing her into the world instead of into a rectum where she belongs.
I’d love to boycott them, but literally everything I do uses one of those 2.
Yeah there doesn’t seem to be any alternatives in my country other than cash which doesn’t work for online purchases.
Apparently there is a complicated thing I can do where I have to go to the post office and then I can send money directly to a company. But that’s really inconvenient (it’s like a 30-second walk from my house, I’m not doing that) and I don’t think steam accepts that payment method anyway. In fact I’ve never heard of anyone except that payment method so I don’t really understand why it exists.
Feels like we’re going back to the 90s/00s “Christian parents against video games” moral panic era. But this time, they’re being appeased more heavily.
I despise conservatism. It destroys everything it touches.
Just as long as they get rid of dungeons and dragons. Everyone knows that’s the real danger in our society.
Pathfinder is clearly the answer
It’s another Satanic Panic.
And there’s way fewer Christians nowadays
But more fascists
It’s amazing how they have a book that tells them to love everybody and somehow they’ve taken that, and turned it into oppress everybody.
Ugh… This shit again…
The fucking Bible is FULL OF FUCKING HATE. Hate for women, hate for blacks, hate for gays, hate for the “other”.
I’m really sick of people trotting out two lines from that book of fairytales and doing a pikachu face “how could people read this and be evil?!?”
Easily, because the Bible is filled with vile shit. Because it’s made up bullshit that let’s you argue every side of every point because it’s a amalgam of garbage written by idiots with the occasional line of wisdom sprinkled in.
Kind of like how we love watching old Tom and Jerry cartoons, but would generally prefer to lightly forget how those cartoons contained frequent racist caricatures towards indians, island natives, black people, etc.
But the ones who remain get worse and worse.
Tired of this story. The fucking prudes need to give up and stop already. Shit
What’s even the argument here? Steam already has parental control options, age gates, and content filters… if you don’t want your kids seeing that shit on steam, then, like, don’t let em?
…meanwhile, let’s just continue shoving blatant gambling down minors’ throats in the form of lootboxes.
The argument is control. Religious zealots are all about controlling society and subduing people to follow their rules (that they themselves tend to break all the time)
That’s their goal for sure, what I mean is how are they pretending to justify it?
There’s usually some on-paper benevolent veneer to wrap their hateful bullshit up with.
For example, they hate trans people, but they don’t campaign on that out loud - they justify that hated under the guise of shit like protecting bathrooms.
But this is fucking Steam - access to that bathroom is already under lock and key behind an armed guard. They can’t just pull the “think of the children!” card when the children already have a myriad of protections.
…or maybe they can, considering what just happened. We live in stupid times.
They are quite literally lying about the content of games like GTA V. They pulled the whole “the goal of the game is killing women” schtick
They precisely can and they kinda just did. “Think of the children” is the magic phrase to shut down critical thinking and give you carte blanche to do whatever you want.
Not always. School shootings happen and suddenly crickets on gun control. “Think of the children” only applies to moral outrage, not tangible physical threat prevention. Also applies to school lunches and any other actual tangible thing to ACTUALLY benefit general child welfare.
Sure, I implied moral outrage. It’s not like they actually give a damn about the children.
They want a nanny state to do their parenting for them, cus they are shit parents who spend their time petitioning the government about things they could just fucking unplug.
Bingo. They’re just projecting their failures as inadequate parents because they didn’t realize how hard child rearing would be after knocking up their high school sweetheart and buying a white picket fence. It’s always the same case.
That’s their goal for sure, what I mean is how are they pretending to justify it?
The same way they always do: “WONT SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?!?!?!1111”
This group isn’t interested in protecting children they’re just interested in pushing their own beliefs on everybody else. The easiest way they can do that is to pretend that they’re interested in children. Which I’m sure some of them are, but not in the capacity that anyone wants them to be.
It’s a classic right-wing tactic. Because nobody wants to be against a law that protects children.
Which I’m sure some of them are, but not in the capacity that anyone wants them to be.
I laughed, then I cried :_(
People like them used to go after books, now games.
https://bannedbooks.library.cmu.edu/aldous-huxley-brave-new-world/
Oh they’re still going after books.
“ All dem queer books are hurtin our kids, makin em all gay and shit! “
Says the man standing in front of his trailer with a deep five o’clock shadow spanning his double chin, a permanently sainted wife-beating tank top and a prominent beer gut, who has five scrawny & bruised kids, and a wife that bears an eerie resemblance to himself but can’t quite look anyone in the eye.
They’re still going after books too. Any and all media, speech, any kind of communication, which is free from their clawing grasp.
And the reason sexual things had to be filtered was that they are harmful and skew kids’ perception of healthy sexuality.
Gambling wasn’t considered healthy even where and when marrying a toddler was normal. After all, a traumatized person with unhealthy sexuality does generally understand they are traumatized, a person taught that addiction is normal - not.
Yet 1000 weirdos in Australia will have more sway, curiously.
