OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October • Hacker News Board

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#891

Post by superfrank » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 6:22 AM UTC

bjowen wrote: post #824

superfrank wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at a webcam pornography company (as a software engineer) a few years ago and honestly, I get it from the processors perspective. I wasn't privy to all the conversations, but I know at the time, some higher ups were toying around with the idea of basically building an entire in house payment processor to handle transactions. I think a lot of people think the processors are doing this out of some moral high gr…

The dispute rate is certainly true for companies under the general umbrella of “subscription services”, usually meaning porn / webcam sites, and there are trigger points where the payment processor will switch off a facility that exceeds a certain dispute volume. OF has been increasingly making use of step-up authentication to avoid disputes, which is the way the non-US payments industry is heading. My guess would be…

Oh, that article you linked is interesting, especially since it says it takes effect Oct 15 and OF's changes take place Oct 1st.

I think at the company I worked at most of what is in there around record keeping wouldn't have been a problem because there were laws that required the company to do that already.

The "pre-screening requirement" could be problematic though.

> All uploaded content must be reviewed prior to publication to ensure that it is not illegal and does not otherwise violate Mastercard’s standards

That one seems crazy. I have no idea how much content they get uploaded daily, but I would guess it's a massive amount. If they needed a human to view 100% of the uploaded content before it's allowed to be published... I just don't see how they could do that profitably.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#892

Post by Uberphallus » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 6:22 AM UTC

conductr wrote: post #801

wonderwonder wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly did not know they did anything besides porn. They have a really bad marketing department as I bet most people only know of them via porn (or I run in a slightly more degenerate circle).

My understanding of it was purely regarding porn. Or, as an open platform focusing on paid user generated content which naturally was a cesspool for porn. Interesting enough, after a debate about would you date a girl who had an OF account, I went decided to visit browse site last week and couldn't find anything other than highly sexually provocative but legit sounding channels. Mostly of the fitness type because yog…

My understanding is that you get the porn after subscribing to a certain creator, but I haven't really even been to the site, so my view might be completely off.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#893

Post by nathias » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 6:23 AM UTC

root_axis wrote: post #280

nathias wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because the payment providers have 99% of market share?

And why is this the case when a variety of cryptocurrencies are trivially available to the public.

Maybe because they had 30 years in establishing complete domination of global online economy and all traffic even the one that ends up in crypto goes through them ... Also there is nothing trivial for the public.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#894

Post by wraptile » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 6:25 AM UTC

cbdumas wrote: post #454

perardi wrote: post #207

Wow, you spend years thinking crypto is convoluted nonsense…and then something comes along that impacts a lot of your friends, and you start to change your mind. I have a fair number† of friends and acquaintances who have OnlyFans. Some for side income, some for a substantial portion of their livelihood. And to see that get taken away because the payment processors want them to fall in line…I guess I’m on the crypto…

The fact that OnlyFans isn't even trying to move to crypto to keep their business alive is a stunning indictment of the state of crypto as a viable payment method.

Why do we somehow assume that OnlyFans - a company that basically stumbled into success with zero innovation or business prowess - is even capable of adopting crypto in such way?

Of all companies that could adopt mass crypto this one would be somewhere at the bottom of the list imho.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#895

Post by chelmertz » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 6:27 AM UTC

bamboozled wrote: post #809

ryantgtg wrote: post #713

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a recent push toward more mainstream performers. For example, there are pro surfers who are popular youtube vloggers (e.g. Nathan Florence) who recently started onlyfans channels. Nathan’s is a fitness training channel. It threw a lot of people off guard. And I strongly suspect that onlyfans paid him to start this channel. https://onlyfans.com/nathanflorence https://dailycaller.com/2021/06/17/onlyfans-pivot-porn…

This is pretty stupid though, to throw away the business you have for the business you might have, there is heaps of porn on Twitter, looking at it is optional. Why can't it just co-exist with other "acceptable" content ? I would imagine it's very trivial to have a "Show me explicit content" setting. Edit: Side note, I don’t know why porn is so shameful, especially concerning adults posting high quality content, it’s…

>Why can't it just co-exist with other "acceptable" content?

Do you really think the critique of Only Fans is aimed at the consumers' experience, rather than contributing to the norm that it's OK for men to pay women to do what the men want?

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#896

Post by holoduke » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 6:33 AM UTC

American absurdity. Selling violence and killing off thousands of people with their arms is no big deal, but a bit of nudity is.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#897

Post by bladelessninja2 » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 6:39 AM UTC

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #877

skrtskrt wrote: post #94

This is going to be corporate suicide on a greater scale than Tumblr's policy. I say greater because OnlyFans is/was still on a massive upswing whereas Tumblr was 10 years past its peak already when the nails went in the coffin. Edit: I understand this is supposedly not their choice.

I read that sex-workers have lost their livelihood during the pandemic due to lockdowns and have become more vulnerable. Then I read the interview of Aella, A OnlyFans creator making 5-figures on IndieHackers[1]. I always felt porn was an exploitative business so was never into it, But I gained respect for OnlyFans as a platform because it enabled people to move from dangerous, risky work to relatively safe work. As…

> I gained respect for OnlyFans as a platform because it enabled people to move from dangerous, risky work to relatively safe work

What about not getting into this and, thus, not being exposed to any risks? Sex-work nowadays is the matter of choice, it's not how it used to be in pre-internet era.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#898

Post by smokey_circles » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 6:46 AM UTC

bamboozled wrote: post #809

ryantgtg wrote: post #713

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a recent push toward more mainstream performers. For example, there are pro surfers who are popular youtube vloggers (e.g. Nathan Florence) who recently started onlyfans channels. Nathan’s is a fitness training channel. It threw a lot of people off guard. And I strongly suspect that onlyfans paid him to start this channel. https://onlyfans.com/nathanflorence https://dailycaller.com/2021/06/17/onlyfans-pivot-porn…

This is pretty stupid though, to throw away the business you have for the business you might have, there is heaps of porn on Twitter, looking at it is optional. Why can't it just co-exist with other "acceptable" content ? I would imagine it's very trivial to have a "Show me explicit content" setting. Edit: Side note, I don’t know why porn is so shameful, especially concerning adults posting high quality content, it’s…

>Side note, I don’t know why porn is so shameful

Is it really such a mystery?

Mostly every religion prohibits sexual freedom and most every government has deeply religious members in the legislature. There is no separation of the church's morals and political ones.

Which means yes, I'm suggesting a ban on religion in the political space. I don't mean you can't be a politician if you're religious, I mean you should be fired if you ever fall back on religious grounds while executing your responsibility.

Strange how the more religious the political leadership, the less freedoms you find in that society, regardless of religion (and like all generalisations, there are plenty of exceptions to that sweeping statement).

This is really not meant as an assault on religion, but let's not pretend that Church is not a political institution. You can have a legislative and judicial political leadership, or a religious one.

But I don't believe it's possible to have both (and call yourself a free country)

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#899

Post by Uberphallus » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 6:49 AM UTC

jazzyjackson wrote: post #879

Cullinet wrote: post #725

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm thinking of the wider insanity to create a economy so large as to almost acquire Web Scale, but only for a financial customer base of individuals who are lacking in the necessary skills and knowledge and motivation and experience to organise themselves into the pressure groups you absolutely have to have prepared to defend your business in the morality courts of post WWII America. Larry Flynt had his work cut out…

Is this a Markov chain or something?

I thought the same, but it makes sense, if you go past the strange grammar structure and pompous words.

My liberal translation:

It's crazy that companies try to scale workforce like you scale compute units in the cloud. This wouldn't be the same if the workforce organized itself in unions, both against the platform and the moral police.

If arguing that everyone on these platforms would be judged in front of everyone else, maybe a legal framework dictating what people can and cannot do is the way to go (I think it sarcastically implies that the "everything which is not forbidden is allowed" principle would be violated).

Edit: it's very complex to describe what unacceptable content is. This will cause many cases of indecency accusations, which will turn the public against them, leaving no freedom of media per se.

Re: OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in October

#900

Post by actually_a_dog » Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 6:51 AM UTC

anm89 wrote: post #825

actually_a_dog wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 can operate beyond those constraints, which is kind of a sad state of affairs for free speech, separation of church and state, and policing in general. Welcome to the "free(…

I refuse to believe this is some free market issue of payment processors wanting the right to not interact with businesses they find morally objectionable. This is about liability and regulation. The processors are scared to process these transactions. It's not that they don't want to.

You can prove that, right? Because, as I said, there's no law against processing porn payments, and risk can be mitigated by just charging more. Your refusal to believe anything is irrelevant.