3 ms·

The anti-porn religious lobby just destroyed the livelihoods of pornographers

22 points by throwawaysea 6y ago

throwawaysea 6y ago
There are a number of issues involved here: 1. Visa and Mastercard's duopoly power to coerce virtually any business, even one as large as Pornhub, is problematic. They are a single point of failure, and since electronic payment processing is a fundamental utility service that underlies virtually all activity, this duopoly results in very real censorship. Censorship masquerading as safety is not a new concept, but it has come to become more normalized on the Internet in recent years, with deplatforming becoming a popular tactic for activists. Now the anti-porn religious lobby is now pressuring credit card companies to block ALL payments to ALL porn sites (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52543508 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52543508). 2. Pornhub has received a lot of critique over their practices of allowing unverified accounts to upload videos and so on. However the volume of abusive content found on Pornhub is far less than other sites like Facebook. Furthermore, any platform is going to have some level of illegal content. Requiring zero illegal content seems unrealistic and is a level of perfection society doesn't expect of any other large-scale service. 3. The recent NY Times article that resulted in the Pornhub payment blockade is resulting in the rise of a new puritanism. Pornhub and other prominent porn sites have made changes to censor various kinks. Many search keywords on these sites now return no results. Many categories of videos are being deleted altogether. And some sites like Xvideos have started to shorten video titles by shrinking words they deem to be problematic to single letters (for example "son" becomes "s"). 4. No regard has been given to those who rely on this ecosystem as a means of living, especially when it is an income stream people are particularly reliant on during the pandemic. The sudden blockade of payments and policy changes at porn sites made with no warning, leaves them with unexpected income insecurity.
- webmobdev 6y ago
  And we are seeing the same with the tech companies too with, for example, Amazon deleting eBooks on devices and Apple removing apps from its app store. We really need regulations so that a balance can be stuck between the needs of the corporate and us consumers. (Though, specifically on the PornHub issue, I really don't have much sympathy for them - a lot of private sex videos, and even illegal underage ones, have been uploaded there as revenge or just for the heck of it, and PornHub has benefited monetarily from it.)
bassrattle 6y ago
Do we really need tens of thousands, or even millions of porn actors? Really? Assuming these people are mostly young and healthy, wouldn't society be better off if they did practically anything else as an honest living?
- rurban 6y ago
  They only are in the business for one and a half year, not more. It earns good and honest money, 1000-2000 a day. The dishonest ones are the criminal parties around, the producers, procurers, agents and before the mafia. Several producers and activists tried to get rid of the criminals with some success in the last decades, but it's a constant up and down. Going after the actors is the wrong idea if you want to help.
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  > Do we really need tens of thousands, or even millions of porn actors? Who do you mean by "we"? I guess if these people are able to earn a living then there must be a market for their content and the answer is yes. > wouldn't society be better off if they did practically anything else as an honest living? They make content that others are willing to pay for, with little to no negative externalities. I can't see how that's bad or dishonest? I don't see why you're criticizing pornography when there are lots of jobs out there that are actually dishonest and are net negatives for society at large, like the aforementioned religious lobbying group the article is talking about.
  - 236dev 6y ago
    > with little to no negative externalities Porn is extremely toxic to the mind and soul. In my mind a drug dealer and a pornographer are in the same category. You're selling vices that destroy a person's life and mind. I'm sure I'm going to get coomers telling me pornography isn't that bad but a simple google search of "negative consequences of pornography" will show that there are many negatives to pornography. A heroin addict is willing to pay for heroin but that doesn't mean that they should be able to freely. They should be put in a treatment center, same with people who buy pornography.
tedjdziuba 6y ago
We're only beginning to understand the effects that this diverse, readily-accessible, in-your-pocket degeneracy has on people. A 16 year old boy today will be able to see more naked women in a month than the previous 10 generations of his ancestors combined. This likely has terrible effects on a sexually developing, novelty-seeking brain. Boys and girls today will both have an unnatural understanding of sex because of pornography. The sex they see on the internet is joyless an without love, let alone that the sex portrayed in porn is better categorized as "feats of strength". It's ironic to me that the content being deplatformed by Big Tech is the content that will help people find God's path, yet OnlyFans is just fine. Sickening.
trianglem 6y ago
This country is going to start becoming unsafe for women again, just like the religious right intended.

22 points by throwawaysea 6y ago

There are a number of issues involved here: 1. Visa and Mastercard's duopoly power to coerce virtually any business, even one as large as Pornhub, is problematic. They are a single point of failure, and since electronic payment processing is a fundamental utility service that underlies virtually all activity, this duopoly results in very real censorship. Censorship masquerading as safety is not a new concept, but it has come to become more normalized on the Internet in recent years, with deplatforming becoming a popular tactic for activists. Now the anti-porn religious lobby is now pressuring credit card companies to block ALL payments to ALL porn sites (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52543508 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52543508). 2. Pornhub has received a lot of critique over their practices of allowing unverified accounts to upload videos and so on. However the volume of abusive content found on Pornhub is far less than other sites like Facebook. Furthermore, any platform is going to have some level of illegal content. Requiring zero illegal content seems unrealistic and is a level of perfection society doesn't expect of any other large-scale service. 3. The recent NY Times article that resulted in the Pornhub payment blockade is resulting in the rise of a new puritanism. Pornhub and other prominent porn sites have made changes to censor various kinks. Many search keywords on these sites now return no results. Many categories of videos are being deleted altogether. And some sites like Xvideos have started to shorten video titles by shrinking words they deem to be problematic to single letters (for example "son" becomes "s"). 4. No regard has been given to those who rely on this ecosystem as a means of living, especially when it is an income stream people are particularly reliant on during the pandemic. The sudden blockade of payments and policy changes at porn sites made with no warning, leaves them with unexpected income insecurity.

webmobdev 6y ago
And we are seeing the same with the tech companies too with, for example, Amazon deleting eBooks on devices and Apple removing apps from its app store. We really need regulations so that a balance can be stuck between the needs of the corporate and us consumers. (Though, specifically on the PornHub issue, I really don't have much sympathy for them - a lot of private sex videos, and even illegal underage ones, have been uploaded there as revenge or just for the heck of it, and PornHub has benefited monetarily from it.)

bassrattle 6y ago

Do we really need tens of thousands, or even millions of porn actors? Really? Assuming these people are mostly young and healthy, wouldn't society be better off if they did practically anything else as an honest living?

rurban 6y ago
They only are in the business for one and a half year, not more. It earns good and honest money, 1000-2000 a day. The dishonest ones are the criminal parties around, the producers, procurers, agents and before the mafia. Several producers and activists tried to get rid of the criminals with some success in the last decades, but it's a constant up and down. Going after the actors is the wrong idea if you want to help.
Nextgrid 6y ago
> Do we really need tens of thousands, or even millions of porn actors? Who do you mean by "we"? I guess if these people are able to earn a living then there must be a market for their content and the answer is yes. > wouldn't society be better off if they did practically anything else as an honest living? They make content that others are willing to pay for, with little to no negative externalities. I can't see how that's bad or dishonest? I don't see why you're criticizing pornography when there are lots of jobs out there that are actually dishonest and are net negatives for society at large, like the aforementioned religious lobbying group the article is talking about.
- 236dev 6y ago
  > with little to no negative externalities Porn is extremely toxic to the mind and soul. In my mind a drug dealer and a pornographer are in the same category. You're selling vices that destroy a person's life and mind. I'm sure I'm going to get coomers telling me pornography isn't that bad but a simple google search of "negative consequences of pornography" will show that there are many negatives to pornography. A heroin addict is willing to pay for heroin but that doesn't mean that they should be able to freely. They should be put in a treatment center, same with people who buy pornography.

tedjdziuba 6y ago

We're only beginning to understand the effects that this diverse, readily-accessible, in-your-pocket degeneracy has on people. A 16 year old boy today will be able to see more naked women in a month than the previous 10 generations of his ancestors combined. This likely has terrible effects on a sexually developing, novelty-seeking brain. Boys and girls today will both have an unnatural understanding of sex because of pornography. The sex they see on the internet is joyless an without love, let alone that the sex portrayed in porn is better categorized as "feats of strength". It's ironic to me that the content being deplatformed by Big Tech is the content that will help people find God's path, yet OnlyFans is just fine. Sickening.

trianglem 6y ago

This country is going to start becoming unsafe for women again, just like the religious right intended.