Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors

kotaku.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 315 posts

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

#201

Post by miki123211 »

Aurornis wrote: post #81
codedokode wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that is fair point, but cannot they just increase the commission to cover them? Also I think it is weird that when someone steals a bank card, they use it to buy adult games instead of buying an iPhone or MacBook and shipping it to the third world country.

They do! It's called a high risk merchant account. Their payment processor would do it: https://stripe.com/ie/resources/more/high-risk-merchant-acco... > Also I think it is weird that when someone steals a bank card, they use it to buy adult games instead of buying an iPhone or MacBook and shipping it to the third world country. iPhone or MacBook purchases are expensive enough to trigger fraud detection reliably. A $…

That, and hormone-filled teenagers (ab)using their parents credit cards. This is called friendly fraud, which is also the reason why some gaming items are higher risk than one would naively expect.

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

#202

Post by wahnfrieden »

Xeoncross wrote: post #110
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…

It's not religion, it's litigation and money. 1) non-consensual or illegal (CP) content could come with expensive lawsuits. 2) Adult content has higher abuse (charge-backs, fraud, etc..).

You forgot intense lobbying efforts funded by conservative groups and billionaires.

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

#203

Post by suburban_strike »

echelon wrote: post #112
eggbrain wrote: post #98

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. 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…

[flagged]

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

#204

Post by nathanmills »

epolanski wrote: post #187
btown wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There isn't a single anti semitic comment in your replies, mind to link it?

Here's the comment thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48123664

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

#205

Post by nitwit005 »

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…

While the executives have their own biases, suing Visa/Mastercard, and damaging their reputation, became a strategy to attack pornography in-general:

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/suing-visa-to-shut-down-por... https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/04/visa-suspends-card-payments-...

And yes, naturally this is backed by the Christian right. They've tried to spin/redefine the whole anti-porn thing as anti-child trafficking, as that has more support.

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

#206

Post by nerdsniper »

suburban_strike wrote: post #203
echelon wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[flagged]

Collective Shout is a Christian anti-rights organization wrapped in feminist cloth.

The founder of Collective Shout previously successfully lobbied against mifepristone and opposed changes to legislation requiring pro-life pregnancy-counseling services to disclose their affiliations in their advertising.

In 2004, she founded the anti-abortion lobby Women's Forum Australia.

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

#207

Post by NoahZuniga »

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…

pornhub doesn't even accept payment via credit card. A while back they were kicked off due to there being too much CSAM.

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

#208

Post by onetokeoverthe »

tavavex wrote: post #137
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…

This is the common explanation I see when this topic comes up, but it always made zero sense to me. It frustrates me that people fail to realize the amount of purchaseable things that could qualify as 'explicit'. This is Kickstarter . Do we really think that someone crowdfunding a risque board game or comic is as likely to ask for a chargeback as some middle-aged man trying to hastily cancel a subscription on some po…

[dead]

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

#209

Post by projektfu »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #42
voxic11 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But who is pressuring the banks? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point

Banks frequently refuse to do business with, or heavily restrict, businesses that they deem risky from a financial perspective. Adult content, pharmaceuticals and travel are all industries that experience significantly higher occurrence of fraud and chargebacks than others. For example, your spouse sees a weird item on your credit card for a porn site. "Wasn't me! Must be stolen I'll report it." Sometimes it's the ot…

Every time my credit card number was stolen, it was used to buy sneakers. I think this isn't uncommon but there's no blanket rule against sneaker sales.

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

#210

Post by lo_zamoyski »

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…

I don't know the specific cause. However, as such, it is a moral issue, not a religious one per se. Pornography is abusive and incredibly damaging to individuals and society and thus the common good. It is entirely reasonable even for governments to take measures to restrict or ban the production and sale of such content.

Opposition to such measures often hinges on false notions of freedom and the purpose of law. One function of law is to teach men to be free in the genuine sense, not as being able to do what thou wilt, but to be able to do what you ought.

There's a reason pornography has a history as an instrument of wartime psyops.

Post reply on HN