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OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

bloomberg.com

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Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#341

Post by smt88 »

tmp_anon_22 wrote: post #330
yholio wrote: post #279

I can understand the business reasons for cleaning up the OnlyFans brand. But I can't, for the life of me, understand why they are killing a cash cow instead of spining it off into a side business. Clone the full experience on a dedicated site, OnlyFantasy.com, duplicate the whole userbase, and give a simple warning that I can find my favorite stars on another site. In time, the user bases will diverge naturally depe…

> Yes, the payment processors will bark at the porn site. Move to a more expensive processor for that site only, pay 5%, 10% fee, it doesn't really matter, it's free money. If PH is having trouble processing any form of credit card, a smaller company will have no chance at all. We're seeing a sterilization of legitimate porn on the internet, done by legitimate tax paying western companies. It'll be left to whoever ca…

I totally agree that OnlyFans is a legitimate and ethical site, but let's not kid ourselves about PornHub. It was mostly pirated content with a lot of videos of people being harmed.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#342

Post by mzs »

taylodl wrote: post #257

Sadly I know girls who are using OnlyFans to keep a roof over their heads and stay out of abusive relationships. Whether we like what they're doing to make money OnlyFans was providing them a much-needed revenue stream. Now that's being taken away from them by the morality police who won't be affected by the consequences of their own decisions.

Can they not setup an account on another for profit service which will commit to verify identity, age, and consent of performers?

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#344

Post by thebean11 »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #281
dweekly wrote: post #126

It sure sounds like this was forced on them by their payment processors, not that this was a voluntary move. https://twitter.com/danprimack/status/1428420774449266691?s=...

This is why America needs to work beyond it's fascination with creditcards. Your bank can't block shit and has to process whatever transaction you want short of the terrorist watchlist.

Weren't banks closing accounts over Coinbase transactions a couple years ago?

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#345

Post by bserge »

elliekelly wrote: post #212
emodendroket wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the reputational risk to them from being associated with porn is not worth whatever OnlyFans brings in.

Payment processors and financial institutions like to use the (IMO mostly political) cover of "AML regulations" to decline service to sex workers and sex worker-adjacent businesses. Prior to the internet and OnlyFans there was at least a tenuous connection: sex work was a cash business and all cash businesses are at "higher" risk for money laundering. Pizza shops, nail salons, car washes, etc. Of course the pizza sho…

Let me remind you that eBay allowed sales of digital products and OTC medication.

For a long time, so they somehow dealt with all the supposed fraud.

Then they grew large enough to tell digital product sellers to fuck off and stepped hard on the medication sellers (pretty sure they banned anything that's more than a supplement).

PayPal did the same, or maybe it was PayPal leading that, they were the same company for a long time.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#346

Post by onionisafruit »

I think this is a rule to keep payment processors happy that won't be enforced. How are they going to find these sexually explicit videos among all the nude videos they still allow? Maybe they have software that can distinguish between a nude video and a sexually explicit nude video. If not they need to either review videos that are posted or rely on users to report sexually explicit videos. I doubt they want to manually review all uploaded videos, so that leaves user reports. Who is going to report an onlyfans account they subscribe to for posting an explicit video? Probably nobody.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#347

Post by LatteLazy »

lnjarroyo wrote: post #158
lotsofpulp wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This supposedly coming soon system should ideally be able to serve as the electronic payment utility. https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/fednow_about.h...

Curiously similar to "Pix" launched by brazilian central bank about a year ago. A quick Google search will show you dozens and dozens of countries getting instant payment systems promoted by their own central banks during the last years. Really makes you wonder who could be behind such a "coincidence".

One of the big issues in 2008 was that payments took multiple days to clear. That meant all the banks owed each other big chunks of money. That's not really a problem: if Bank A owes Bank B 1Bn and Bank B owes bank A 1.01 Bn, they're both solvent and you can just net them off to tell what your profit is.

But if Bank A suddenly goes Bankrupt, Bank B might still owe Banks A's creditors but won't get paid. So Bank B is fucked now too, even though they weren't doing anything dumb. In turn other banks will be pulled down when Bank B fails. This is why Lehmans was bailed out (in theory, conspiracies aside)

This is called Contagion, it's a type of counterparty risk: the risk that you make good deals and everything works out in your favour but the people who are meant to pay you welch.

To reduce this, there has been a big push to cut the time between trades\deals and settlement of payments. Ideally we want it to be immediate.

This is one reason central banks might be pushing this.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#348

Post by losteric »

bcheung wrote: post #245
_jal wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember this next time people start pushing going cashless. Doing so means that a third party is involved in every transaction you make, and that someone else will always have veto power over your commercial transactions.

Crypto will eventually democratize business transactions but it will take some time and it will not be without increased fraud.

Mass adoption of crypto will come with the same problem - middlemen slipping in under the guise of efficiency and convenience, who will then be compelled to cooperate with big brother.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#349

Post by throwaway5752 »

nonameiguess wrote: post #231
Mindwipe wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very likely the pressure is coming from Visa and MasterCard (especially MC) rather than at the level of CCbill.

This doesn't make any sense at all. Pick a subscription porn site right now, any one, and go try to sign up. You don't have to follow through, just get to the payment page and don't click submit. They all take Visa and MasterCard. CCbill itself couldn't exist if Visa and MasterCard didn't let it process payments for porn.

The porn industry is regulated, believe it or not. What happens is that financial system support is withdrawn from places that provide avenues for exploitation of children or victims of human traffickers. I expect OF didn't think they could meet recordkeeping requirements or assume the liabilities of doing so incorrectly.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#350

Post by duskwuff »

admn2 wrote: post #305
gumby wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a friend who ran a “sexually explicit” site you’ve heard of. He was paying north of 25% to payment processors (compare to less than .2% restaurants pay…though his margins were much bigger). The payment processors take this attitude because that way they can tell congress they are “doing something about vice”, and in exchange not be subject to undesired regulations. I suspect this kind of soft pressure is being…

Seems like a business opportunity for someone to build a Stripe for vice businesses. Question I know nothing about is besides being stigmatized, do these industries have higher fraud rates? Pretty sure credit card companies won't let you "chargeback" stripe clubs as fraud even if it wasn't you.

> Question I know nothing about is besides being stigmatized, do these industries have higher fraud rates?

Very much so. Adult businesses have extremely high rates of friendly fraud, which is worsened by the facts that 1) they don't deliver a physical product, so it's difficult for the merchant to prove that a charge was legit, and 2) some customers will charge back purchases which they regret making, or which a partner disapproves of. ("No, honey, I definitely didn't sign up for that porn site, I'll call the bank right away.")

> Pretty sure credit card companies won't let you "chargeback" stripe clubs as fraud even if it wasn't you.

I'm pretty sure they will.

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