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The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

theguardian.com

131–140 of 372 posts

Re: The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

#131
post #83
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of payment processors who will deal with explicit content. They tend to be fairly expensive though - partially justified since apparently chargebacks are outlandishly common. For example, CCBill will process essentially anything that isn’t illegal, albeit with 6% fees for “risky” industries and 10-15% fees for “adult” industries. https://ccbill.com/pricing (As an aside, one sort of neat thing about CCB…

This is the dirty little secret that everyone clutching their pearls over the OnlyFans 'scandal' won't talk about. There are plenty of providers who will deal with porn, but porn customers are shit customers who no one wants -- the fraud and chargeback rate is incredibly high so the cost of processing payments is equally high. The advantage that crypto brings to porn payments is not the pretend anonymity, it is that…

OnlyFans claimed it was the banks, not the payment processors, who were the problem.

Specifically, BNY Mellon, acting in an intermediary role between OnlyFans' banks and creators' banks, allegedly blocked all payouts to creators.

Re: The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

#132
This article completely misses the causes of the rule changes. Banks and payment processes pushed new rules because they were being held accountable. The changes were all implemented in response to hugely influential NYT opinion piece on PornHub in December [1] that specifically called out payment processors, and preempted a BBC investigation into OnlyFans that was hinted to do the same [2].

The conversation here should about how rulemaking via media outrage is a problem given the public has conflicting morals.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/sunday/pornhub-ra...

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58255865

Re: The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

#133

I suspect that "accountability" is a problematic frame. Platforms are the accountability mechanism, increasingly so. As for banks... Everything new is old again. Financial institutions have long been the unofficial regulators, acting more or less in unison with arbitrary decision making power. Tech platforms have just joined the game.

But do you think some hidden power would organize banks together behind the curtains and ban… porn? of all the possible battles to lead, children and the sanity of adults would be their battlehorse? If so, I admire it.

Re: The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does that matter?

Because organizations can be refounded, desolved while humans can't be. An organization is a vehicle for purpose. Humans aren't a vehicles for a purpose.

Why is that relevant in the context of OnlyFans, which is an org too. I just posted an analogue case.

Re: The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A girl pleasuring herself isn’t the same thing as encouraging people to storm the White House and overthrow democracy, I’m confused why you would interpolate the two. It is just more fuel for the argument that America has always been so uncomfortable and Puritan with sex and way too comfortable with violence.

I dont think they were talking about January 6 posts. I have seen all manner of Facebook friends censored for speaking their thoughts on varying subject matters that have been politicized over time. Also seen friends banned off Twitter for literal shitposting. I miss the internet when it was mostly full of nerds. After smartphones it all went downhill.

Summer never ended after 2008, sadly.

Re: The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

#136
The strange thing is these problems are already solved through cryptocurrency and decentralized social media. We just need more adoption of decentralized platforms. To me, as I hear about these centralization problems more and more, it seems like decentralized platforms are the future.

Re: The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

#137
post #71

The reason the banks, and through the banks OnlyFans, attack sex is because they are accountable, and don't wish to take risks unless they are very profitable risks. The real danger of platforms and banks is how happy they are to censor for the government, or simply the loudest, richest mouth, in order to keep the profit flowing. If you want to fix it, you put in legal protections for people to do business, rather th…

> The reason the banks, and through the banks OnlyFans, attack sex is because they are accountable, and don't wish to take risks unless they are very profitable risks. This is exactly the case.

Does anyone know the specific reason banks find the adult industry risky?

Re: The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

#138

It's interesting to see the comments from people who supported Youtube/Twitter/FB/Patreon/Visa political censorship, but are suddenly against the porn censorship by the payment same systems. "Rules for thee, but not for me."

People are capable of infinite mental gymnastics when it comes to justifying why rules or oppression/suppression they like are different from ones they don't like.

There is the often repeated "imagine your worst enemy had this power" but it doesn't seem to get through to people.

Re: The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

#139
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that the banks all move in lock step, undermining the basic principle of the free market. If one bank decides it doesn’t want to deal with porn, fine. But when all the banks decide that, that’s very very bad. The cumulative effect is a chilling of protected speech in a way that congress could never legally get away with.

There are lots of payment processors who will deal with explicit content. They tend to be fairly expensive though - partially justified since apparently chargebacks are outlandishly common. For example, CCBill will process essentially anything that isn’t illegal, albeit with 6% fees for “risky” industries and 10-15% fees for “adult” industries. https://ccbill.com/pricing (As an aside, one sort of neat thing about CCB…

Not that simple. The payment processors have to follow edicts by the payment networks. I've been in meetings where we had warnings passed on from payment networks about consequences if we failed to address a chargeback problem where our processor kept apologising because there was nothing they could do.

You also need to deal with various combinations of acquiring (bank the merchant account linked to the specific payment network is with) and issuing banks (bank of the individual card owners)

Re: The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A girl pleasuring herself isn’t the same thing as encouraging people to storm the White House and overthrow democracy, I’m confused why you would interpolate the two. It is just more fuel for the argument that America has always been so uncomfortable and Puritan with sex and way too comfortable with violence.

While I am concerned about the coercive power of these platforms against speech they find unpopular, whether porn, or something else.... > A girl pleasuring herself isn’t the same thing as encouraging people to storm the White House and overthrow democracy Enough with the hyperbole, the FBI has already stated they found little evidence of a grand conspiracy to overthrow the govt [1], despite the fact we know that the…

From the article you linked, there was clearly coordinated groups trying to overtake:

>The officials did note that far-right groups – like the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters – may have collaborated in breaching the Capitol on the day of the riot.

These aren't scrubs either. Some of them are ex-military, armed civilians coordinating with other groups to breach the capitol and take hostages. This is not hyperbole, it's fact. Just because they didn't succeed doesn't mean it wasn't real.

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