As its 2025, and as the nonbinary author of a YA Fantasy with a nonbinary main character, I expected my Ruarnon Trilogy to be banned or shadow banned this year. But as it turned out, my book that was shadow banned has a cis male character, who’s sexuality is barely mentioned. In this blog I’ll explore an epic failure of communication between indie game and bookstore Itch and its content creators, censorship concerns and why I was furious about my book, which tells the story of a teenage boy grappling with CPTSD as a result of family violence and dysfunction, was caught up in it.
Apparently We’re Being Censored
Shadow Bans
If you don’t follow indie creators on Bsky, you may have missed the social media maelstrom of angry, confused reactions over the past week. You may not know the indie gamer store Itch, has become a haven for queer, neurodiverse and disabled indie authors, in particular. Itch is the one place many of us are actually having people buy our ebooks, despite many of us having little or no money to pay to advertise books. Importantly, it was the one space we felt our works were truly valued for their queerness.
So when we jumped on Bsky to see posts saying books had been shadow banned, meaning our books are on the Itch store, but some do not display in its searches, there was confusion. Creators were shocked and angry at Itch giving us no prior warning. Only after the fact did Itch issue this statement.
In short, creators were told by Itch that a charity/ advocacy group called Collective Shout campaigned to pressure Mastercard and Visa not to process payment of ‘certain content.’ Itch appears have shadow banned all content tagged ‘NSWF’ and perhaps also ‘Adult’ in response. (As of the 29/7/25, the former is confirmed by the Australian Guardian.)
Total Content Bans (Edited 30/7/25)
A few days later, Itch released a new content policy (listed under ‘Is Adult Content Allowed?’) The clause which had me concerned about them allowing my book to be for sale after their review (the reason for the shadow ban/ indexing is; “We are unable to support the sale of any works containing these topics: Non-consensual content (real or implied)…’
This phrase is problematic. If it came directly from Collective Shout, who describe themselves as anti-porn, I’d assume the clause means ‘non consensual sexual content.’ But the word ‘sexual’ isn’t in that clause. And the phrase after it is ‘no underage or barely legal themes.’ These are broad, sweeping clauses, currently worded in a manner that is in no way limited to sexual assault or rape.
Censorship Gone Mad? A Cautionary Tale?
Characters in fiction don’t normally consent to being murdered, assaulted, robbed, cheated on by their spouses, betrayed, lied to, deceived, enslaved, killed in battle, etc. ‘Non consensual content’ as a blanket ban statement is ludicrous. The genres ‘Murder Mystery’ and ‘Crime’ would be wholesale banned, many Fantasy and SciFi books and games, and Thrillers; gone. Your middle of the line contemporary family drama wouldn’t be available on Itch; if they enforce this policy in its current wording.
What was the Purpose of the Censorship?
NSWF Censorship? (Added 30/7/25)
Having seen Itch’s replies and interactions to this post in a Bsky thread, and Collective Shout’s open letter to the payment processors, I am reassured that the phrase ‘non consensual content’ is intended to contain the word ‘sexual,’ though its current wording appears very broad.
Update July 31: Itch are seeking new payment processors, who are friendlier to NSWF content, because their new adult content policy was imposed on them by payment processors Stripe and Paypal. Content creators of 18+ content (all, not just sexual) can no longer select Stripe as their payment processor for Itch. Which suggests to me that Stripe is opposed to all adult content.
Update August 2nd: Itch’s naming choice ‘Adult Content’ and Stripe using ‘NSWF’ and ‘adult’ as synonyms (no, my autistic brain does NOT consider ‘adult’ to be inherently ‘sexual’ because; it literally isn’t), suggests Itch’s ‘Adult Content policy’ means: sexual content policy. That the word ‘sexual’ does apply to every clause and that it does not restrict all M+ content. (Note from an autistic person to anyone who communicates with other humans: use words that literally mean what you literally mean!)
Queer Censorship? (Added 31/7/25)
There were reports of Itch removing LGBTQIA+ works which do not contain the NSWF tag and fears that the ‘LGBT’ tag was targeted by de-indexing. I am aware of several instances (from this Bsky thread) where SWF works were de-indexed because they were tagged, ‘adult’ or ‘sensitive content,’ which Itch removed in case it was NSWF. Itch has restored most of the examples in this thread.
Update Aug 2nd: This late in the game, formed under fears all NSWF and possibly queer content was or could in future be banned, has already sparked the formation of indie collective Conjured Ink. Its aim is to create a catalogue of indie works (especially queer and NSWF) that doesn’t share Itch’s vulnerability to payment processor censorship. And its website went live for creator sign ups today.
Collective Shout &Trans People
(Edited 30/7 & 4/8/25)
Who are Collective Shout? As their About Page tells you, they are a ‘a grassroots campaigns movement against the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls.’ They’ve done some good work, like getting Andrew Tate, the notorious Manosphere ‘pick up’ artist’s content banned on Spotify. I note this because its evidence of a group of feminists acting in a way that’s likely to actually make the world safer for women. Their campaign wins seem to indicate this is their intent.
Why do I doubt Collective Shout? Because the year is 2025, and there are ‘feminist groups’ in the UK who, instead of taking actions to reduce actual violence against women, are waging war on trans rights in the name of ‘protecting women’. This despite a 2021 survey finding that only 0.01% of people aged over 16 in England and Wales identify as trans men, and again, only 0.01% of over 16’s in England and Wales identify as trans women. It appears to me that these TERFs wish to hold 0.02% of the UK population accountable for 100% of its violence against women.
Groups like Sex Matters have pushed for bathroom bans in the UK. This looks a lot like denying trans people the dignity of using public bathrooms, effectively discouraging trans people from participating in public life. (See JamieDodger for more on this). And the director of Sex Matters just launched a book praising such work in the UK and arguing that they should be proud to be called ‘TERF Island’. That book is being published and promoted by Spinafex press, which was co-founded by Collective Shout’s co-founder, Renate Klein.
Collective Shout TERF Agenda? (Edited 4/8/25)
So a co-founder of Collective shout runs a press that is platforming a leader of the UK anti-trans movement, and her press is promoting a book that praises attacks on trans rights. In the same month Renate’s Press published that book, Collective Shout went after an obscure indie games and book store, on a distant corner of the internet (Itch). One that just happened to have a high ratio of trans creators selling their works on it.
In this this interview, PressSpaceToJump surveyed 25 creators whose works were de-indexed on Itch. Twelve of them were trans. Several of them made their living from sales on Itch. Of all the places Collective Shout could go to reduce the ‘objectification of women and sexualisation of girls,’ why did they choose Itch (and not just larger store Steam? Is it coincidence that censoring Itch was likely to censor trans creators?
An ABC article reported Dr Keogh, a researcher at QUT Digital Media Research Centre take as, “Collective Shout’s campaign had the hallmarks of a moral panic, using extreme examples to galvanise public support.” And quoted him, “And that’s really just a smokescreen to remove a much, much broader range of content, which includes primarily queer content and trans content.”
Given the TERF agenda platforming above, I’m inclined to suspect Dr Keogh is right. And that Collective Shout’s claims about its agenda are untrustworthy. (Collective Shout’s founder won’t even disclose her religion, for fear it would taint her advocacy work. I wonder if fear of people applying the ‘Christo-fascist’ label to her and the impact that could have on her work that she fears.)
Where Does Collective Shout Get its Funding?
(Added Aug 8)
According to the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission (ACNC), Collective Shout’s total revenue is $458,000. Despite the age of the charity (it was founded in 2009), that’s impressive for a charity who gets 80% of its income from donations, whose website to this day has a monthly reach of just 3,000 people (sourced from Ahrefs website visits tracker), which Ahrefs estimates earns them around $58 a month.
I’m Australian. I had heard of Collective Shout. No other Aussies I’ve spoken to have. Its not like they do door knocking, or set up stands in shopping centres, asking for donations, like other charities. So where did this money come from? And why does RocketReach, a company whose business is built on corporate networking, estimate Collective Shout’s revenue to be 6.4 million? (I’ll leave it to journalists to verify that statistic.)
Even if RocketReach made a gross error with its revenue statistic, this still looks like several hundred thousand dollars came from nowhere. Personally, I don’t trust any organisation in the year of fascism’s return to the west 2025, who’s pushing censorship, if I don’t know who funds them. If I don’t know where the money came from; I don’t know who’s agenda its being used to push.
Global Censorship Context
2025 does not feel like a safe time time for any one organisation to soley impose censorship on the sale and distribution of creative content. Or for a mere a thousand emails to have payment processors censoring what adults can buy. It was enough to prompt the Trans Femine Review to, in their post about all this, link their guide to protecting trans and diverse books. And Collective Shout’s campaign against Itch and Steam as far from an isolated move towards increasing censorship.
Updates August 4th
Melinda Tankard Reist (Collective Shout’s founder) addressed a Federal Inquiry to support age limits on Social Media in Australia in July 2024 and has been very much involved in this process.
Australia introduced age verification rules for Microsoft and Google in June 2025.
Canada introduce a bill to ‘protect young people from pornography’ to parliament in June 2025.
Meanwhile multiple US states have or were proposing age verification in June 2025, including KOSA, which passed the senate July 30th.
Collective Shout sent their letter to payment processors that triggered Itch and Steam censorship in July 2025.
On July 25th, the Uk launched age verification for social media users.
The broader backdrop of Collective Shout’s censorship push is a push by anglo nations to ‘protect children against porn,’ something Collective Shout’s site claims to be passionate about. And this ‘protect kids against porn’ movement is coinciding with fascism being firmly established in the US, and gaining ground in the UK. I don’t mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but this extensive set of ‘remarkable’ coincidences makes me wonder if Collective Shout is a pawn, or worse, collaborator, in a larger censorship game.
If You don’t Write Non-Consensual;
You Can’t Fight it
Update July 30: One of the clauses of Itch’s updated content policy, the only evidence I had for two days about why my book was shadow banned, was a clause prohibiting ‘non consensual content.’ As explained above, without the word ‘sexual’ in this clause, it read so broadly that it raised multiple issues for my book.
My main character Rarkin did not consent to being raised by an abusive father, who constantly undermines Rarkin’s worth. And Rarkin’s mother didn’t consent to being abused by her husband.
And you know what? Rarkin’s father didn’t consent to being assaulted by his father. Just like Rarkin’s mother didn’t consent to being abused by her father. That’s how the cycle of family violence works.
Many people are privileged enough to not have lived experience of this. If you’re going to write a book that says, ‘This character had an unhappy childhood,’ then launch into who that character is now… A. as someone who spent the formative years of their childhood watching abuse and neglect destroy kids I went to school with; if you didn’t live it, you do not know and cannot hope to understand it by many other experiences you could have had. And B. if you don’t know what you’re fighting, then you don’t know how to fight it, and you cannot truly appreciate why it matters.
Silence is Violence
The above was a phrase used by Mene Wyatt, an Aboriginal Australian, in a powerful monologue about Australian racism. He’s absolutely right. Never talking about unpleasant, dark, scary things, like the child abuse in my book Walking the Knife’s Edge, is akin to pretending those unpleasant things don’t happen. Like not talking about people trafficking, rape, or the disgustingly small sentences male sex offenders receive, on the rare occasions they’re prosecuted at all.
When we constantly don’t talk about awful things that are happening, its like we pretend they aren’t. Like we sweep them under the rug. Its like Gaza, where you don’t want to look, because its awful, and you feel powerless to stop it.
The thing is; if most people aren’t talking about it, most people aren’t doing anything to stop it. You can’t bring about societal change, you can’t end violence against women or children (or BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ people) once and for all, with inaction.
Why Telling Rarkin’s Story in my Banned Book MATTERS
I’m an author. One who is physically disabled (fibromyalgia), who is both enhanced and impaired by autism and ADHD. As a disabled person, there are a lot of things I physically cannot do to make many aspects of this world a better place. One thing I can do is tell a story about a poor kid from the wrong side of town, who grew up holding it all in, with emotionally toxic coping strategies, because he had no other role modelling. I can represent CPTSD, the impact of trauma and stress on memory, on trust and relationships. I can have a character question his family, as he tries to understand himself, taking a lens to the cycle of family violence and to toxic masculinity.
I can go further. I can take a character who’s ultimately at risk of suicide, or being a crime lord. I can craft his healing journey, combatting his warped, toxic views of the world with the influence of happier, healthier humans he’s very grateful to have as friends.
I can give teenagers who ignore this book’s adult classification, and are fighting the same battle as Rarkin himself, the chance to see themself in a book. To have someone, for once in their life, show that I SEE them. I know they exist. Even better, I can write a character recovering from the very things threatening their mental health and their future.
I can show them there’s an out. There are ways. There are reasons for hope.
The Power Of Fiction
I’m me. I didn’t survive growing up with the challenge of clashing with an autistic parent who’s neurodiversity did not understand mine, of navigating early adulthood with no concept of organisation, or navigation as a time blind ADHDer, I DID NOT get long covid, and be incapable of writing for nine months to merely give my readers hope. I am not here just to make you feel.
I did that in Ruarnon Trilogy, which tells the story of a bunch of teens whose various neurodiversity’s quite literally help them to save a world. I explored unique strengths of autism and ADHD, especially the two working together in that trilogy’s main character.
With Rarkin, the greatest strength is his experiences of growing up with violence and trauma. His survival instincts and his capacity to understand, to stand up to people others are terrified of, are exactly what will position him to play a leading role in his world. The very weaknesses that nearly destroyed him, as low as he begins this story, that is how far he will come and how high he will rise.
I want readers who’ve lived Rarkin’s shittier experiences of life to have the chance to feel seen by his story. And I want them and every other reader to be blown away by it. But there is no way I can show you how far Rarkin comes across a series, if I cannot show you how it all begins, with shadow banned on Itch, book one.
What Now?
Should you see an organisation making a concerted attempt to prevent someone from telling their story, ask yourself; who are they silencing? Who and how does that silence harm, as well as help? No one’s going to shout about the ‘harm’ part, and with fascism on the rise, acts of censorship where harm is the point are ever more likely.
Register Your Complaints
Tell Mastercard, Visa and Stripe that it is not for them to decide whether adults can sell or purchase (legal) adult content.
See YellAtMoney for Mastercard, Visa, and Itch’s payment processors Stripe and Paypal’s phone numbers, mailboxes and emails. (That link includes advice, scripts and resources you might want to refer to in your contact at the bottom of the page.) You’ll find even more payment processors and their contact details on stop.paypros
Why? Because if an organisation can pressure payment processors for the right reasons, then an organisation can pressure them for the wrong reasons. And 2025 has been a spectacular display of wrong ‘reasons’.
Protect Diverse Books
First they came for porn, then NSWF, then queer and trans and all diverse creator’s content? To secure your own access to books by diverse creators, or even better, to safeguard books by trans and other diverse authors, even the hyperlinked contents menu of this article by Transfeminine Review will help.
If you’re looking for more books by diverse authors and about diverse humans, keep an eye on Itch bundles being advertised on Bsky. Particularly when its Pride Month, Nonbinary Awareness Week, Disability Pride Month, ADHD Awareness Month, Asexual Awareness Week etc. (Yes, I’ve got a book in a bundle for each of those latter two this October.) Books by marginalised authors and about marginalised characters are likely to be bundled during the month/ week/ on the international day for that identity group.
See also my Bsky lists of Marginalised Authors who sell books on Itch;
My book telling Rarkin’s story, Walking the Knife’s Edge, has been indexed on Itch and is available on Kobo, Barnes and Noble and other stores. Or request it at your local library!
Thanks for sticking with me to the end!
Well said. Absolutely, the lack of differentiation between a work (book, game, show, or otherwise) *containing* certain content and *glorifying* that content is a massive gulf that CS – and Itch, Mastercard, Visa, Steam, etcetera – seem to not just not understand but refuse to accept. Or, rather, more frustratingly in the case of CS, one they claim to understand but don’t think anyone except them can be trusted with.
It’s important to show the low times. To show the bad things. If we don’t do that, we can’t show how they can get better. If we don’t do *that*, we run the risk of losing hope when those bad things *do* happen in real life.
(Plus I hate TERFs of course, but I can’t say anything attempting to be pleasantly eloquent about that. They just are awful. XD)