Liberators In Action: Collective Shout

As our world thrives, so do countless problems. Most of these fly under the radar, failing to make the cut by mainstream media. But often, they matter as much as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

When we created Youtropolis, we wanted to cast a light on these unseen events that shape societies quietly. In such stories, we find imaginative, solution-oriented citizens who, through determination, help good prevail over evil.

The heroes in these stories are the liberators of the world who, from their own station in life, are driven to rise above perceived limitations to find ways to stop a challenging menace—whether it’s in the aftermath of a natural disaster, in terrifying acts of lawlessness, or in abuses perpetrated against others.

Around the world, liberators display the best of humanity and remind us of our own innate capacity to reach a higher ground in social responsibility.

This story is about an organization that recently succeeded in stopping two gaming platforms, Steam and Itch.io, from selling the rape simulation game “No Mercy” to players. In this depraved game, in its own words, players “assume the persona of a man who rapes his female family members” with the game offering a “huge focus on incest and male domination.”

One of the male gamers alerted Collective Shout about this disturbing game. Collective Shout is a grassroots campaigns movement against the objectification of women and the sexualization of girls.

Upon hearing the news, Collective Shout immediately moved to pressure the gaming platforms to remove the game, but their requests were ignored. Next, they launched a petition that gained media attention internationally. This triggered public outrage which resulted in Steam pulling the game. But Itch didn’t budge. So they sent an open letter to the CEOs of the platform’s payment processors, including PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover, accusing them of profiting from rape, incest, and child abuse.

The open letter in part reads:

“Following our global viral campaign including a change.org petition signed by over 70,000 concerned individuals and attracting international media attention, the game was taken down in Canada and the UK, and pulled from Steam by the developer.

However we have since discovered hundreds of other games featuring rape, incest and child sexual abuse on both Steam and Itch.io. Most of the content found within the games, including the graphics and the developers descriptions, are too distressing for us to make public.

A Collective Shout team member has conducted extensive research using a Steam account set up for this purpose. She has documented content including violent sexual torture of women, and children including incest related abuse involving family members.  We do not see how facilitating payment transactions and deriving financial benefit from these violent and unethical games, is consistent with your corporate values and mission statements.  We request that you demonstrate corporate social responsibility and immediately cease processing payments on Steam and Itch.io and any other platforms hosting similar games.”

For their efforts, Collective Shout founder, Melinda Tankard Reist, said she and her female colleagues had received a “deluge’’ of death and rape threats on X, as well as doxxing to incite violence against them.

But the payoff has been tremendous, with Steam removing 500 Rape/Incest games, and Itch.io delisting 20,000 NSFW games.

Today, we celebrate Collective Shout’s victory and honor them as Liberators in Action for their persistent efforts to stop the pernicious pestilence of misogyny so prevalent in today’s world.

If you're interested in their campaigns, give them a shout here.