So who is pressuring the processors?
I’ve heard this is apparently less about morality and more about payments getting contested by men getting caught by their spouses
Those people should have used cryptocurrencies.
Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors
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Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors
#12VISA is the government
actually if they were it would be easier to argue it's a violation of free speech, but since they're not they can censor with much less restriction
tbh there's a case to be made that the government should run a payment processor as critical infrastructure
Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors
#13So who is pressuring the processors?
Banks
Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors
#14So who is pressuring the processors?
It could be any link in the chain. They will never tell you though. It's the perfect unaccountability machine.
Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors
#15So who is pressuring the processors?
Right-wing, openly evangelical groups like Exodus Cry and Morality in Media, who have an explicit agenda to ban pornography and see this as an easy "next step" towards that end goal.
They are also the groups behind the closure of big porn sites like XTube, the short-lived purge of adult content on OnlyFans (one of the few battles they lost), and the scourge of age verification bills that are sweeping the US, UK, and Europe.
The goal with age verification laws is not to protect minors or fight CSAM (as much as they pretend it is) - it's to make it expensive and difficult to legally serve content that they disapprove of, producing a chilling effect. Note that the content they disapprove of is not limited to pornography, which is why many of these bills have such vague language that can apply to other things like information on abortion, or LGBTQ+ themed material. This is not an accident; the supporters of these policies are quite open about their intention.
Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors
#16I feel like if you’re going to write an article like this, you should at least engage with why it’s happening. Maybe deep down for some of the participants it’s a kind of moral thing, but mostly this is because payments for NSFW/porn stuff are dramatically more expensive. All of the “stuff” payment processors are doing is harder for NSFW/porn content, so that’s the main reason the processors want these companies to separate/cutoff that type of content.
EDIT: I’m kind of sensitive to getting downvotes on a comment. Do the downvoters think this is a high quality article giving a good amount of context for the upstream policy choices? Do the downvoters take me for supporting some kind of decision like this? Do you think I’m just wrong on my understanding of why these policies are made? I’d really encourage you to look into it. Google or chat something like “why do payment processors ban adult content”.
Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors
#17Question: what prevents an organisation like Kickstarter from using more than one payment processor, including the ones used by actual porn companies?
Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors
#18So who is pressuring the processors?
[retracted]
I think the pressure is just coming from behind the scenes.
The religious right knows many of their views are unpopular so they don't act in the open. They find underhanded ways to force their views onto us. Abortion bans wouldn't survive a simple up and down vote in almost any state, yet abortion bans are happening across the country.
The religious right really has their claws into this administration, and the far right has a much larger say in things than it seems like they would based on their proportional representation in the population. Things like gerrymandering and closed primaries don't help.
Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors
#19So who is pressuring the processors?
Banks
But who is pressuring the banks? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point
Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors
#20So who is pressuring the processors?
The actual answer: hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2bswuu1nfc040h... & https://finance.yahoo.com/news/visa-suspends-payments-for-ad...
> But he was friendly with Mastercard’s then-CEO Ajay Banga, whom he had met through a mutual friend. Ackman texted Banga, providing a link to Kristof’s story with his tweet: “Amex, VISA and MasterCard should immediately withhold payments or withdraw until this is fixed. PayPal has already done so.” (Ackman was unaware that American Express already did not allow its card to be used on adult sites.)
> Banga quickly wrote back: “We’re on it.”
> Then things began to move. Within days, Mastercard announced it had “instructed the financial institutions that connect the site to our network to terminate acceptance” of [PH] charges, saying it had found evidence of illegal activity and was continuing to investigate.
EDIT: The antisemitism in some replies is disgusting and I reject it entirely. This post is about a specific, publicly reported action by one individual, not about any religious or ethnic group. Any attempt to turn this into conspiracy-mongering is bigotry, not analysis. I don’t want that associated with my comment.