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

theguardian.com

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

#291

Post by unity1001 »

Indeed - Payment companies like Visa and Mastercard enforcing American cultural and religious conservatism on other countries and nations is an illegal situation - per other countries' laws.

These are effectively monopolies. It doesnt matter whether there's two of them. If they collectively enforce something onto the people of other countries - like Europe - then they are violating those countries' laws

They must be investigated and regulated accordingly in Europe. American culture and American laws do not apply to Europe.

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

#292

Post by LorenPechtel »

OJFord wrote: post #287
pessimizer wrote: post #25

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…

I don't think it's getting causation wrong, it's just confusing 'accountable to [in its opinion] the wrong entities' with 'unaccountable'. The banks are accountable to their boards which are accountable to their shareholders, which (the ones that matter) are increasingly .. I hate to use the word but 'woke' activists - nudging companies in the 'right' direction either from a moral standpoint or from a perceived moral…

The bank prudery is a response to the government's willingness to hold banks accountable for turning a blind eye to money going to illicit purposes.

Yes, both PornHub and OnlyFans haven't been careful enough with screening their material but we normally don't hold hosts responsible for perfect policing of user content--except when sex is involved.

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

#293

Post by throwawaysea »

Every business that includes network effects must be regulated as if it is a public agency or utility once it is above a certain size. I don’t think it is useful to debate the threshold to try and find some kind of optimum. Let’s just pick a number, like number of users exceeding 25% of national population, and start there.

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

#294

Post by ghomrassen »

gadders wrote: post #239
jonathanstrange wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your point? That someone at the Guardian does not share your personal opinion? As for me, I'm not okay with either banks discriminating against free speech and banks discriminating against porn. For example, I was vigorously against banks blocking Wikileaks payments. Therefore, I'm fine with the Guardian article.

What about banning Proud Boy accounts or Gab/Andrew Torba?

crickets

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

#295

Post by rob_c »

Guthur wrote: post #23
rob_c wrote: post #17

Looks like the same thing as wikileaks to me. A combination of bad optics and lawyers getting involved causing a monopolistic supplier to pull their services. Doubt this has much to do with MasterCard attacking the adult industry, it looks more like they want to strongly protect their existing stranglehold on the payment systems. Anything which impacts the way they're seen costs them real actually money I'd bet at th…

Oh please come on, stop with the monopoly rhetoric Only Fans is no where near a monopoly. It just comes across as truly naive to throw that term around in every conversation.

AFAIK only fans doesn't provide services to MasterCard as an entity... I think that would be a scandal I'd enjoy reading if that's the case.

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

#296

Post by bitwize »

pessimizer wrote: post #25

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…

Since the Obama administration's Operation Chokepoint, banks are loath to process transactions from certain industries, including porn, cannabis, and guns -- lest they incur greater regulatory scrutiny. This scrutiny comes whether the transactions are legal or not.

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

#298

Post by uda »

I actually agree with the term "Unaccountable". Sure, the banks have their boards and share holders, so do the tech companies.

The question is not whether they have internal accountability, but rather if they have public accountability to their declared statements, their stated mission and non-written guarantees given by officials to the public.

Many companies like these paint themselves as for-public, while I know and so do you, that is not true, but companies should be held accountable for the image they try to portray, they should be held accountable for public announcements no matter the personnel change.

So yes, the platforms and banks have unaccountable power, given by us the public, based on false promises and sales pitches. And we the public have the power to stops that, by making them accountable, but we are the ones who have to do that, by pointing the finger at the root decision makers in those monstrous structures of organizations.

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

#299

Post by missedthecue »

harry8 wrote: post #233
OrvalWintermute wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many businesses cannot hire enough employees. Everywhere I walk I see help wanted signs. Hourly rates are going up. Are they being forced to sell something, or a conscious choice?

How does the wages increase with help wanted signs compare to the rent increase in the last decade or two in your annecdotes? Food? Health insurance? Student debt repayments? I don't know i just want to see real data before condemning anyone at all.

Here is some real data. Right now, the inflation adjusted median weekly earnings for people 16+ is essentially at it's highest point ever. Much higher than it was 30 or 40 years ago.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

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

#300

Post by hamstergene »

saddlerustle wrote: post #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 sho…

Accountability by definition requires proper accounting practices. There should be level-headed discussions, legal actions, and punishment proportional to the wrongdoing.

Taking damage from public outrage is being lynched, coerced, blackmailed, retaliated, scapegoated, it is being anything but held accountable.

The author is talking about having power to discriminate anyone's business via private corporate decision. It seems OK in the context of sex trafficking/CP because we know those are bad things, but the power is not limited to any of that, and that is unaccountability.

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