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These are not merely service providers. They are de-facto utilities. Just because Verizon does not like your politics, does not mean they can cut you off from t
by apostacy 8y ago
These are not merely service providers. They are de-facto utilities. Just because Verizon does not like your politics, does not mean they can cut you off from their services. Same with Wells Fargo denying you a checking account (although they certainly did try in the past, if they thought you were a labor organizer).
Patreon, and other payment processors (like Stripe.com) are having their arms twisted from the highest levels by Visa and Mastercard.
Think for a moment if it would be ok with you if Visa and Mastercard were doing this because they wanted to silence people who advocated for women's rights. Would you still be so libertarian about it?
- wpietri 8y agoVerizon is a monopoly, and should be tightly regulated. Patreon is definitely not. And there's no particular reason here to think that Patreon is doing this under pressure from Visa. They were under plenty of pressure from their user base. I think there's also a fundamental difference between an organization that bans people who increase the rights of marginalized groups and one that bans people that are looking to further marginalize people, so your analogy doesn't do anything for me.
- apostacy 8y agoI was referring to the credit card companies as being a monopoly. They use their top-down power to impose their politics on people. It's not just Patreon. If anyone sets up a similar service, and does business with someone that Visa does not want, they will use their monopolistic power to shut you down. Imagine if they were doing this about a cause you disagreed with. Imagine if our financial industry was run by Trump supporters, and they were slowly squeezing their critics out financially. This is bad.
- wpietri 8y agoAs I said, there's no particular reason here to think that Patreon is doing this under pressure from Visa.