Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors • Hacker News Board

Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

#111

Post by xyzzy_plugh » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:40 PM UTC

chimeracoder wrote: post #95

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some types of explicit content, sure, I don't disagree. I've seen instances where "fraud" was used as an excuse for an otherwise unpalatable brand. There hasn't been sufficient reporting on all the lobbying and back-room dealing.

> There hasn't been sufficient reporting on all the lobbying and back-room dealing. There has been tons of reporting on this in the industry. It is not hidden. The war on sex work is extremely well-documented, as is the explicit shift in tactics to targeting financial infrastructure as a tactic.

What I'm trying to say is that the industry reporting isn't percolating up to e.g. TFA, which makes no mention of any of this.

Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

#112

Post by echelon » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:41 PM UTC

eggbrain wrote: post #98

Aurornis wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stripe (their payment process) will handle adult content payments. It puts the account into the high risk category due to the high rate of fraud in those categories. There's no actual evidence in the article that payment processors made them do it. They actually banned pornography long before this. They just updated the terms to clarify what counted as pornography. > Also this is why we should work to increase circul…

> Stripe (their payment process) will handle adult content payments. It puts the account into the high risk category due to the high rate of fraud in those categories. Stripe _says_ they will handle these type of payments, but more often than not, within roughly a year of implementation you'll get an email from them kicking you off their platform, no matter how vigilant you were, or even if the things you were sellin…

Why is this no longer on the front page of HN?

This should be the top article. It's only an hour old and has hundreds up upvotes.

The payments industry is strong arming free speech to promote religious fundamentalism.

There is no such thing as vice content being higher risk. That's a diversion topic. Fewer and fewer people are hiding porn payments from their wives.

We don't need the religious oligarchy dictating how you can live.

Edit: it's back. Halfway down the page. A few minutes ago it was not on the home page at all and I had to search for it.

Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

#113

Post by iamnothere » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #52

codedokode wrote: post #39

Why payment processors do it? Why people in America do not want to earn more money from commissions? Strong church lobby? Legal risks? I think its mostly religious groups who who are against adult content and sex, or there are other groups? Also this is why we should work to increase circulation of cryptocurrency. No stupid religious restrictions and stupid political sanctions. Also why PornHub and OnlyFans are immun…

Stripe (their payment process) will handle adult content payments. It puts the account into the high risk category due to the high rate of fraud in those categories. There's no actual evidence in the article that payment processors made them do it. They actually banned pornography long before this. They just updated the terms to clarify what counted as pornography. > Also this is why we should work to increase circul…

This may have been true at some point and is the conventional wisdom now, but it’s no longer accurate as pointed out by others in the discussion here. There’s a lot of pressure coming from anti-porn activists who seem to have zeroed in on smaller companies as the most vulnerable. OnlyFans and the PornHub parent company have faced many different attacks as well, including lawsuits and campaigns for age verification laws, but for whatever reason they seem to be immune to financial pressure. Probably because all they do is adult content, so they are willing to fight it no matter the cost!

(Note that OnlyFans did get attacked in this same way before and briefly attempted to pivot to non-adult content before rapidly backpedaling after a user and creator uproar.)

Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

#114

Post by CryptoWick » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:45 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #41

Headline is misleading on multiple levels. Kickstarter already banned pornographic content before this. They expanded the rules to include more specifics. That's it. That's the story. Everything else is speculation and anger-mongering. > While the previous version of the page simply prohibited “Pornographic content,” it now contains some oddly specific restrictions, including, but not limited to, “implied sex acts,”…

[dead]

Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

#115

Post by marcosdumay » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

micromacrofoot wrote: post #12

functionmouse wrote: post #2

VISA 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

If they can make laws and people are subject to those laws, then they are government.

I only disagree with the "the" on the GP, they are para-governamental.

Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

#116

Post by general1465 » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

mrsilencedogood wrote: post #62

codedokode wrote: post #39

Why payment processors do it? Why people in America do not want to earn more money from commissions? Strong church lobby? Legal risks? I think its mostly religious groups who who are against adult content and sex, or there are other groups? Also this is why we should work to increase circulation of cryptocurrency. No stupid religious restrictions and stupid political sanctions. Also why PornHub and OnlyFans are immun…

For specifically sexually explicit stuff, it's because chargebacks are __significantly__ higher for these types of purchases. High enough that it messes with the credit and counterparty risk modeling that processors use. You can use your imagination to come up with many reasons these result in more chargebacks than normal purchases. Theoretically, they could just split out "explicit" vs "normal" risk categories, but…

Then why there are chargebacks in the first place? Allow merchants to have no chargeback policy.

Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

#117

Post by iamnothere » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

natbennett wrote: post #89

codedokode wrote: post #39

Why payment processors do it? Why people in America do not want to earn more money from commissions? Strong church lobby? Legal risks? I think its mostly religious groups who who are against adult content and sex, or there are other groups? Also this is why we should work to increase circulation of cryptocurrency. No stupid religious restrictions and stupid political sanctions. Also why PornHub and OnlyFans are immun…

Article and comments are underrating the impact of reputational risk on payment processors and on Kickstarter itself, for hosting/facilitating sexual content. Some amount of adult comment is CSAM, or otherwise broadly disfavored. Some companies (Pornhub, OnlyFans) are willing to specialize in discriminating between “regular” adult content and the objectionable stuff, and they have payment processors similarly willing…

Thanks, this is a better summary of the situation than all the people claiming it’s chargebacks (no longer such an issue as it used to be).

The problem is that activists who are laser focused on eliminating adult content watch intently for the first thing they can use against the company, and even if it violates their ToS something problematic is eventually bound to get through review. Rather than reporting it to the platform, activists then threaten the platform through intermediaries and force them to change their policies to drop adult content.

Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

#118

Post by dfxm12 » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

codedokode wrote: post #39

Why payment processors do it? Why people in America do not want to earn more money from commissions? Strong church lobby? Legal risks? I think its mostly religious groups who who are against adult content and sex, or there are other groups? Also this is why we should work to increase circulation of cryptocurrency. No stupid religious restrictions and stupid political sanctions. Also why PornHub and OnlyFans are immun…

Practically, adult content has a lot of chargebacks. I can understand not wanting to deal with that out of the box, especially in the context of kickstarter.

Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

#119

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:50 PM UTC

codedokode wrote: post #39

Why payment processors do it? Why people in America do not want to earn more money from commissions? Strong church lobby? Legal risks? I think its mostly religious groups who who are against adult content and sex, or there are other groups? Also this is why we should work to increase circulation of cryptocurrency. No stupid religious restrictions and stupid political sanctions. Also why PornHub and OnlyFans are immun…

[deleted]

Re: Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

#120

Post by gowld » Wed, May 13, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

general1465 wrote: post #116

mrsilencedogood wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For specifically sexually explicit stuff, it's because chargebacks are __significantly__ higher for these types of purchases. High enough that it messes with the credit and counterparty risk modeling that processors use. You can use your imagination to come up with many reasons these result in more chargebacks than normal purchases. Theoretically, they could just split out "explicit" vs "normal" risk categories, but…

Then why there are chargebacks in the first place? Allow merchants to have no chargeback policy.

US federal laws mandate chargebacks as a consumer protection mechanism, primarily through the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) of 1974 and Regulation Z of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA)