1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

This past week, two major e-commerce platforms for art and games have been forced to censor and remove products from their stores which have been flagged as inappropriate not by law or a reasoned debate on allowable practices, but solely by the whims of payment processors. Most specifically, the companies Visa and Mastercard. All of this content was legal to access on the platform in countries where it was available, but because these two mega corporations believed that this content should not be accessed by the public because it was made by and for adult users, these payment processors forced the platforms to censor their content. Eliminating income from both the developers and taking away content which the customers had rightfully paid for with neither recourse nor compensation for their lost purchases. This is an egregious overstep on the part of Visa and Mastercard. What right do these companies have to step beyond the scope of the law to censor what companies which must use their services to survive in an increasingly digitally reliant economy? While politicians like yourself must debate and give reasonable arguments on behalf of their voters, they take it upon themselves to be judge and jury of the people's right to access free speech. Censorship is a blunt cudgel, not a precise instrument. And as long as these companies hold unchecked power, they hold the right to censor art and speech on public platforms as much as they like. Please take action. Do not allow Visa, Mastercar, and other payment processors to be the arbiters of the world's free speech rights.