Hello, fellow netrunners.

This is breaking news, so expect updated information and changes to happen quickly. But for now, all content on this platform that was in any way tagged as adult, nsfw, or 18+ (probably including tags like bara, we don’t yet know) have been shadowbanned. That means this content is essentially invisible and can not be searched for—you can only navigate to these pages directly.

I encourage everyone who is a fan of String Zero or FVNs in general to follow these games through alternative means. Below is a list of places to keep track of String Zero.

• Patreon
• Subscribestar
• Bluesky
• X/Twitter
• Discord

FVNs in general can still be searched at: https://fvn.li/ and Visual Novel Database

This is likely a result of the anti-porn groups that recently lobbied Mastercard and Visa to crack down on adult content on Steam. Here’s some things you can do to fight back:

1. Make others aware. If you’re an FVN fan, or a fan of adult games in general, make sure everyone knows what’s going so the games continue to get attention in spite of being hidden on itch.io.
2. Pressure payment processors. More information below.
3. If you are in the USA, pressure your lawmakers to pass the “Fair Access to Banking” Act.
4. You can sign this petition with the American Civil Liberties Union.
5. You can sign this change.org petition.

Putting Pressure on Payment Processors

Many folks in the community have already begin putting together threads and documents for how you can reach out to payment processors to put pressure on them to rescind their baseless censorship of our content. Of note, it appears Paypal, Stripe, and Payoneer are the major problem here, but Visa/Mastercard should also be pressured.

• Visa, Mastercard, Paypal Contact Information, Bluesky Link
• Similar to above, with more numbers and Stripe contact, Bluesky Link

Coverage, For More Digestible Information

• Moist Critical Commentary
• Keith Ballard’s Coverage, Part 1, Youtube Link
• Keith Ballard’s Coverage, Part 2, Youtube Link

More information as I have it.

Update 1:

Itch has made a statement, along the lines of what we all expected. What silver lining there is seems to be that they will follow similar standards as Steam and relist content after they have performed an audit. That does mean games not in compliance will be removed. (Most likely games with incest and other “morally objectionable” content in line with what Steam also recently removed.)

“Once this review is complete, we will introduce new compliance measures. For NSFW pages, this 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.

Part of this review will see some pages being permanently removed from http://itch.io. Affected accounts will be notified via their account’s email address from our support address. You can reply to that email if you have any follow up questions.”

Full Post: https://itch.io/updates/update-on-nsfw-content

Update 2:

Itch has begun to update its documentation regarding the limitations on adult content. These limitations are incredibly vague–so vague, in fact, they would ban familiar work such as Game of Thrones, and even the Bible itself. How they intend to implement this remains to be the seen.

String Zero circumvents all of these concerns EXCEPT whatever “animal-related” means, which could apply to essentially every Furry game on this platform. So is this a blanket ban on furry or anthro content? We have no idea. More information to be provided. FOr