In a new interview, Caitlin Roper, campaigns manager at Collective Shout, revealed that "legality is not the defining factor" in the games it targets, stating that men who are defending the games "perpetrate crimes of violence against women."

Speaking in an interview with TweakTown, Roper states that the group's objection "is to content that glorifies sexualised violence against women and children," adding, "it is clear many of the men defending their rpe games perpetrate crimes of violence against women, because they are doing it to us right now."

Gross.

Roper states that while many of the games the company initially targeted would "be illegal in Australia," the organization doesn't view legality as the "defining factor".

"Our work focuses on combating the sexual objectification and exploitation of women and girls, so we focus our energy there," says Roper. "That said, we call out this objectification and abusive depictions of women and girls even where they are not illegal. Legality is not the defining factor; it is about documented evidence of harm to women and girls."

When asked about the damage Collective Shout was causing to developers who had released their games within the confines of the law, Roper stated, "If Steam andDownload the latest indie gameshad been moderating their platforms as they should have, there would have been no need to temporarily delist games to ensure they were not in violation of their policies.

Our objection has always been clearly stated - rpe, incst, and child sexual abuse."

reading up on this woman and her work is headache inducing

okay but collective shout is not protecting women and girls from sexual violence by censoring fucking detroit become human

god it pisses me off because I agree with the sentiment but the execution is such fucking bullshit

their higher-ups have deep connections to conservative politics in Australia that promotes anti-trans and anti-abortion rhetoric

very anti-queer, very accusing everyone who challenges them of being a pedophile

kamex: that's how it always works. you say some bullshit that people can't argue because it makes them look like they're defending sexual assault and/or pedophilia

and use it to just delete any and all of your enemies, regardless of reasons

basically anyone you don't like, "they are the source of all the evil in the world can't you see that,"

it's so stupid

it's real dumb, yeah

because, painfully, fascists are aware that's the quickest, most efficient way of calling the uneducated to action

And those who are not fascists are afraid of taking that route because it makes them "just like the fascists" and so they end up just, sitting and crying about how there's Nothing They Can Do while the fascists feast

anyway i'm real mad and i shouldn't vent it too much in drizz's space

It's cool, it just

but my short form is that collective shout is a symptom, not the problem, and if they were some sort of political outlier they would have been laughed out of the room by now

but no, they're just a scapegoat asking for what the shithead capitalists want to do anyway

It sucks ass that censorship group have so much sway simply because they can march in and yell "BUT THE CHILDREN" and it brings everything to a halt.

"but the children" has been the rallying cry of regressive conservatives since before we were born

so much of the 80s and 90s were controlled by "but the children"

I just wish more people could actually internalize that using children as a strawman to get what you want is the most obvious dogwhistle imaginable

As an aside, just up here, my province just put forward a book ban that includes The Handmaid's Tale in schools

just to point out that it's happening here too

oh yeah

how many years ago did they ban catcher in the rye, out of curiosity, because that one's the one that absolutely caught the flak when they wanted to further demonize mental illness

"But The Children" and other such "concerns" conservatives have

It was never banned up here (to my knowledge) but uuhhhhh scanning wikipedia there's been contention with it as far back as 1961

fair enough; there has been contention, 100%

Man, I fucking hate these people. Yeah sure, protecting children and women, sure. Nevermind that they have clear and obvious affiliations with with groups of people who are known for abusing both women and children! Nevermind that the censorship has and is likely to continue spreading much further than just games that "glorify violence"!

Nevermind that there's a lot of content out there that's meant not to glorify violence but draw attention to it so that people will know and understand the horror!

Nevermind that this kind of censorship will hurt abused children, adults with trauma, gay people, trans people, other marginalized groups...

Because those people don't matter, do they! In fact, you could probably make a good case for that being the real intent of this shit: not to prevent violence or protect people from the horrors of the world but to ensure that it continues to be perpetuated in a controlled, approved manner, behind closed doors and against "undesireables".

Y e p

the system is, maddeningly, working as intended

yuuuup

this woman defended cuties as a nuanced story about the sexual exploitation of children

these people defended a woman that sent nudes to a teenage boy because it was "consensual"

they don't give a fuck about children

they're regressive christofascists