9 ms·

Payment processors' bar on Japanese adult content endangers democracy (2024)

185 points by thisislife2 1y ago

Robthiessen 1y ago
[dead]
kkfx 1y ago
The fact we have PSPs endanger Democracy, because we could technically exchange eCash P2P, there is exactly ZERO reasons to keep up the banking systems, and banksters knows that well, https://web.archive.org/web/20240213185758/https://www.cimb.ch/uploads/1/1/5/4/115414161/banking_disrupted_geneva22-1.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20240213185758/https://www.cimb.... unfortunately people seems to be unaware of that...
Telemakhos 1y ago
How is this a danger to "democracy?" The centralization of payment processing under a surveillance-friendly network that can debank people for socially unacceptable behavior was never on any ballot. Instead, surveillance capability is a regulatory requirement promulgated by governments that despise privacy, regardless of which party holds office. The mistake here is in thinking that there's "democracy" left to save.
- dragontamer 1y ago
  > The game director’s statement was most likely triggered by the news that Manga Library Z is shutting down. The platform, which has preserved digital editions of out-of-print manga for the past 14 years, was initially pressured by international credit card companies to remove manga that contained certain words, and then abruptly forced to terminate all of its payment contracts, leaving it with no way to secure revenue for its authors. The cause cited for this was transactions involving adult content. ------- Japan is a democracy. And yet payment processors from another country are powerful enough to bypass Japans political system.
  - landl0rd 1y ago
    Japan is reliant on use of those payment processors. Pretty sure Line Pay, crypto, Rakuten Pay, etc are all viable alternatives. I fail to see how a comic book site is at all relevant to democracy because some processors don't want to process payments for pornographic comic books.
    - dragontamer 1y ago
      You don't see how extra-legal foreign companies setting country wide policy is a threat to the local voters?
      - landl0rd 1y ago
        It's not country-wide policy though. They aren't deciding what people can and can't buy. They're deciding of what they will or won't facilitate the sale. The American pornography industry has solved this problem by 1. recognizing that there is higher risk, like "oh no honey that $5.99 charge from onlyfans on the statement must have been fraud! do a chargeback." and 2. recognizing that the optics of selling pornography are bad and not everyone wants to assume what is essentially an externality (bearing that optics cost) without being paid extra for it. So there are providers that handle "high-risk" payments like that. Or they take crypto. One of the cool things about the fact that companies are profit-seeking and really like making money, is that when they turn down what looks like an opportunity to make money you can be pretty sure it's for a good reason.
        dragontamer 1y ago
        > American What does this have to do with Japan? The fundamental problem addressed here is that these Japanese people, one way or the other, are complaining about how our culture is influencing them. And your response is to tell them to be more American? Presumably speaking, the Japanese people would want a Japanese solution here. I don't live in Japan but I think I can at least get the gist of this guy's argument. > One of the cool things about the fact that companies are profit-seeking and really like making money, is that when they turn down what looks like an opportunity to make money you can be pretty sure it's for a good reason. Historically speaking, for profit companies of different cultures misunderstand and even abuse the locals. Because you know, profits to the foreigner and reasons that the local doesn't care or even may be opposed to. For the locals to feel threatened by that (and claiming that democracy is at stake) is... Well, a trope at this point. It keeps happening so we probably should be sensitive to the gist of the argument.
- o999 1y ago
  > The mistake here is in thinking that there's "democracy" left to save. There is no democracy, never has been, it is an illusion of choice maintained by the oligarchs to keep people motivated just to get exploited more by whoever wins their next ballot. I don't care about DVs
decremental 1y ago
[dead]
ur-whale 1y ago
The only thing that endangers freedom here is the fact that there are centralized payment processors in the first place. There's an existing cure for that particular disease: Bitcoin.
- KennyBlanken 1y ago
  Tell me you know nothing about transaction overhead without telling me you know nothing about transaction overhead. All the blockchain currencies require orders of magnitude more power to process a transaction compared to a debit or credit transaction. Bitcoin is primarily used by governments (like NK), hacker groups, and organized crime to launder money. The solution is not blockchain currencies. European credit card transaction costs are a fraction of what they are in the US because US regulators just sat back and allowed Mastercard and VISA to establish a duopoly. In much of the rest of the world it's also possible to near-instantly wire-transfer funds to pay for things, at negligible cost. In the US, everything is forced to go through the federal reserve, is expensive, and slow. We are the laughing stock of the rest of the world. The banks have tried to set up alternatives. Zelle is a good example, but Zelle's most annoying problem is that you can only have one account per phone number or email address.
  - nikolas- 1y ago
    > everything is forced to go through the federal reserve, is expensive, and slow. This isn't entirely accurate, there is a private clearing house that supports instant payments in the United States. https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/CHIPS https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/CHIPS https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp
- kelseyfrog 1y ago
  The cure is worse than the disease
  - southernplaces7 1y ago
    Really? Feel like specifying so in an informed and rational way? I mean, you claim a system of voluntary, consensual payments that people can decide or not to use vs. formal channels depending on their need for avoiding politically charged bullshittery and financial censorship of all sorts is somehow worse than... the long arm of major governments and their corporate partners to restrict whatever they please for whatever political reasons they please at any time? Truly, the irrational crypto hatred by some on this site is the stuff of idiot parody.
gjsman-1000 1y ago
People seem to forget that most countries aren’t down with “adult content.” Japan famously has censorship; while it’s outright illegal and censored online in India, Russia, China, and no shortage of other countries. It’s illegal on both sides of conflicts - like Russia and Ukraine (possession in Ukraine by itself is grounds for up to 3 years in prison). Some countries like Australia permit it, but “extreme” content (aka anything not “vanilla”) is technically illegal regardless of the age of the viewer. This is also not necessarily based on religion: China is officially atheist, Vietnam is as well, but both will put you in prison for importing it. Ironically, it is post-Christian countries that are most tolerant. From the global stage, America is not some overly puritanical country while everyone else goes along without religious purity concerns. The big view is that the majority of countries censor it or ban it, even democratic ones, with no religious motive required. The Western world is the exception, but that’s changing in the UK, Australia, and now the US with age gating, payment processor refusal, or other restrictions.
- selimthegrim 1y ago
  Japan has censorship as a result of the American occupation.
  - gjsman-1000 1y ago
    Correct; otherwise it would likely be illegal in Japan completely, judging by the nations around them.
    - latentsea 1y ago
      Are you kidding me?
- kanbara 1y ago
  japan has fully legal drawn porn of children and tentacle beasts and whatever else, you just need small bars over genitals and beasts. you can buy it in a bookstore anywhere across the country freely, how is this not “down” with adult content? weird take
tptacek 1y ago
We just had a thread on this; probably don't need to recycle 2024 stories for it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44606184 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44606184
- gsf_emergency_2 1y ago
  What if people find an endless source of intellectual nourishment in the proxy wars between chargeback ("pay-neutral") culture and puritan culture https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44621081 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44621081 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44629685 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44629685 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44629982 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44629982 https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/1caxsmc/japanese_adult_games_dev_take_on_credit_card/l0z1ixd/ https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/1caxsmc/japan...
xterminator 1y ago
Each country central bank should have its own national payment processing system. Why is this not a thing? Spain has Bizum, for example.
- bobthepanda 1y ago
  FedNow is relatively new for the US in 2024. One thing to note is that by design, the US banking system is very decentralized and that makes any sort of migration or mandate like herding cats. There are 141 banks in Spain and 4135 in the US. US banks are generally not allowed to exceed 10% of deposits through mergers and there are only three passing that threshold; JPMorgan Chase at 15%, BofA at 14%, and Wells Fargo at 11%.
  - evan_a_a 1y ago
    The EU has already figured this out with the recently passed instant payments regulation [0]. As of 2024 are 5,304 banks in the EU [1], so the number of banks really isn’t an excuse. The US banking system lags the rest of world by a mile, because there is no will to force modernization. [0] https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/integration/retail/instant_payments/html/instant_payments_regulation.en.html https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/integration/retail/instant_pa... [1] https://www.ebf.eu/factsandfigures/ https://www.ebf.eu/factsandfigures/
    - bobthepanda 1y ago
      The regulation passed in 2024 which is the same year as FedNow. Am I missing something?
      - evan_a_a 1y ago
        FedNow is a technological solution for instant payments, not a regulation. It’s a voluntary system for the banks to join. Further, banks are not required to offer instant payment services to their customers. The analogous technological solution in the EU is TIPS [0], which has been operational since 2018. The IPR is a regulation that requires banks to support instant payments and offer them to customers. [0]: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/target/tips/html/index.en.html https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/target/tips/html/index.en.htm...
numpad0 1y ago
I don't buy that the attack on Steam was just some Australian cult activist groups. This isn't one off event anyway. They're just a distraction. What's urgently needed is payment neutrality, like net neutrality. It's absurd that the net was discussed more heavily and way earlier than cash.
- kelseyfrog 1y ago
  Why not? The celebrated it as their own success.
  - michaelt 1y ago
    There are also a lot of religious anti-pornography folks in America, and with views on sexuality they are eager to impose on others. I doubt the pressure came from Australia alone. And there's a long history of people taking credit for things they were barely involved with. It would be an awful shame if free-speech-loving Americans' anger at the action American payment processors towards an American game distributor were diverted to some unreachable, unaccountable group on the other side of the world.
    - kelseyfrog 1y ago
      Who is saying that it was AUS alone? The signatories are majority Australian then UK and one or two US depending on how you count (UK working in the US).
    - gjsman-1000 1y ago
      The majority of the world censors or bans pornography, not just America. In Vietnam, China, Russia, Ukraine, just to name examples, you can go to literal prison for possession, not just pay a fine. Ukraine considers possession alone grounds for up to 3 years. This is despite Vietnam and China all-but-requiring atheism to run for positions. I think this is sufficient to show there are plenty of non-religious reasons to refuse involvement. Framing pornography as a purely religious issue is a misdirection.
LorenPechtel 1y ago
No. Democracy is endangered by the fact that the government likes to use payment processors to stomp on stuff near the edges. The dogs on the right rallies around when the government tries to pressure gunmakers, the cats on the left don't rally around such threats very well.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
hnpolicestate 1y ago
You will have better luck getting people to adopt Monero than to get legislatures to pass payment neutrality. Same with enforcement. The trend in Western democracies is less freedom, more control, more surveillance etc. Mind you, both odds are negligible.
draxter65 1y ago
The same payment companies are very happy to take payments on porn sites. This manufactured outrage makes no sense. It's scary what a rather small activist group can accomplish.
- nine_k 1y ago
  Not at all. Square, Stripe, PayPal all outright refuse to deal with anything porn. Visa and Mastercard put out severe limitations, and (AFAICT) refuse to process payments to sites like pornhub. This is not only due to reputation risks (even though these are real), but also because of the higher rates of fraud and chargebacks. I'd say that anything that by its nature materially hampers the customer's ability to think rationally is risky for a payment processor, because it will always be a fertile ground for fraud and scams. Porn and gambling are obvious examples; alcohol is another, but (strong) alcohol is usually pretty strictly regulated, down to state-run monopolies in a number of countries.
  - draxter65 1y ago
    My friend can confirm that regular visa/master card transations work on porn sites and onlyfans!
    - cindyllm 1y ago
      [dead]
atleastoptimal 1y ago
Other's have said this but it isn't a moral crusade by the payment processors', but rather their capitulation to various moralizing advocacy groups.
r33b33 1y ago
Just use bitcoin
hsuduebc2 1y ago
A handful of US companies take a cut from nearly every payment on the planet, and now they’re caving to pressure from Twitter mobs and puritan lobbies, censoring global content just to avoid upsetting shareholders. Visa and Mastercard haven’t brought anything new in years. Their infrastructure still dominates out of habit, not merit. Meanwhile, alternatives like stablecoins and European systems like EPI or the digital euro are gaining ground. Their boldness is honestly surprising, especially now that real competition is finally emerging.
sherrycoles9 1y ago
[dead]
o999 1y ago
Let's remember that there is no real "democracy" out there, activism and strikes are declared illegal/terrorism/threat in Europe and North America when it crosses the boundaries of the elite oligarchs. US rail strikes, Canada truckers strikes, anti-genocide protests, anti-deportation protests, etc.. Online crackdown on journalism under the pretext of "graphic" content is an everyday occurrence. So talking about ban on adult content in that context is naive at best.
sucupira 1y ago
[dead]
sucupira 1y ago
[dead]
Kate5477 1y ago
[dead]
mirgova5 1y ago
Hello everyone, my name is Mirgova I'm from Czech Republic but currently based in the United States I want to use this opportunity to say big thank you to DAREK Recovery for they helped me recover my stolen crypto worth $620,000 through their hacking skills I got my money back in less than 48 hours after contacting them on recoverydarek@gmail.com I’m so glad I came across them early because I thought I was never going to get my money back from those fake online investment websites.
sharonkeller 1y ago
[dead]

185 points by thisislife2 1y ago

[dead]

kkfx 1y ago

The fact we have PSPs endanger Democracy, because we could technically exchange eCash P2P, there is exactly ZERO reasons to keep up the banking systems, and banksters knows that well, https://web.archive.org/web/20240213185758/https://www.cimb.ch/uploads/1/1/5/4/115414161/banking_disrupted_geneva22-1.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20240213185758/https://www.cimb.... unfortunately people seems to be unaware of that...

Telemakhos 1y ago

How is this a danger to "democracy?" The centralization of payment processing under a surveillance-friendly network that can debank people for socially unacceptable behavior was never on any ballot. Instead, surveillance capability is a regulatory requirement promulgated by governments that despise privacy, regardless of which party holds office. The mistake here is in thinking that there's "democracy" left to save.

dragontamer 1y ago
> The game director’s statement was most likely triggered by the news that Manga Library Z is shutting down. The platform, which has preserved digital editions of out-of-print manga for the past 14 years, was initially pressured by international credit card companies to remove manga that contained certain words, and then abruptly forced to terminate all of its payment contracts, leaving it with no way to secure revenue for its authors. The cause cited for this was transactions involving adult content. ------- Japan is a democracy. And yet payment processors from another country are powerful enough to bypass Japans political system.
- landl0rd 1y ago
  Japan is reliant on use of those payment processors. Pretty sure Line Pay, crypto, Rakuten Pay, etc are all viable alternatives. I fail to see how a comic book site is at all relevant to democracy because some processors don't want to process payments for pornographic comic books.
  - dragontamer 1y ago
    You don't see how extra-legal foreign companies setting country wide policy is a threat to the local voters?
    - landl0rd 1y ago
      It's not country-wide policy though. They aren't deciding what people can and can't buy. They're deciding of what they will or won't facilitate the sale. The American pornography industry has solved this problem by 1. recognizing that there is higher risk, like "oh no honey that $5.99 charge from onlyfans on the statement must have been fraud! do a chargeback." and 2. recognizing that the optics of selling pornography are bad and not everyone wants to assume what is essentially an externality (bearing that optics cost) without being paid extra for it. So there are providers that handle "high-risk" payments like that. Or they take crypto. One of the cool things about the fact that companies are profit-seeking and really like making money, is that when they turn down what looks like an opportunity to make money you can be pretty sure it's for a good reason.
      - dragontamer 1y ago
        > American What does this have to do with Japan? The fundamental problem addressed here is that these Japanese people, one way or the other, are complaining about how our culture is influencing them. And your response is to tell them to be more American? Presumably speaking, the Japanese people would want a Japanese solution here. I don't live in Japan but I think I can at least get the gist of this guy's argument. > One of the cool things about the fact that companies are profit-seeking and really like making money, is that when they turn down what looks like an opportunity to make money you can be pretty sure it's for a good reason. Historically speaking, for profit companies of different cultures misunderstand and even abuse the locals. Because you know, profits to the foreigner and reasons that the local doesn't care or even may be opposed to. For the locals to feel threatened by that (and claiming that democracy is at stake) is... Well, a trope at this point. It keeps happening so we probably should be sensitive to the gist of the argument.
o999 1y ago
> The mistake here is in thinking that there's "democracy" left to save. There is no democracy, never has been, it is an illusion of choice maintained by the oligarchs to keep people motivated just to get exploited more by whoever wins their next ballot. I don't care about DVs

decremental 1y ago

[dead]

ur-whale 1y ago

The only thing that endangers freedom here is the fact that there are centralized payment processors in the first place. There's an existing cure for that particular disease: Bitcoin.

KennyBlanken 1y ago
Tell me you know nothing about transaction overhead without telling me you know nothing about transaction overhead. All the blockchain currencies require orders of magnitude more power to process a transaction compared to a debit or credit transaction. Bitcoin is primarily used by governments (like NK), hacker groups, and organized crime to launder money. The solution is not blockchain currencies. European credit card transaction costs are a fraction of what they are in the US because US regulators just sat back and allowed Mastercard and VISA to establish a duopoly. In much of the rest of the world it's also possible to near-instantly wire-transfer funds to pay for things, at negligible cost. In the US, everything is forced to go through the federal reserve, is expensive, and slow. We are the laughing stock of the rest of the world. The banks have tried to set up alternatives. Zelle is a good example, but Zelle's most annoying problem is that you can only have one account per phone number or email address.
- nikolas- 1y ago
  > everything is forced to go through the federal reserve, is expensive, and slow. This isn't entirely accurate, there is a private clearing house that supports instant payments in the United States. https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/CHIPS https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/CHIPS https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp
kelseyfrog 1y ago
The cure is worse than the disease
- southernplaces7 1y ago
  Really? Feel like specifying so in an informed and rational way? I mean, you claim a system of voluntary, consensual payments that people can decide or not to use vs. formal channels depending on their need for avoiding politically charged bullshittery and financial censorship of all sorts is somehow worse than... the long arm of major governments and their corporate partners to restrict whatever they please for whatever political reasons they please at any time? Truly, the irrational crypto hatred by some on this site is the stuff of idiot parody.

gjsman-1000 1y ago

People seem to forget that most countries aren’t down with “adult content.” Japan famously has censorship; while it’s outright illegal and censored online in India, Russia, China, and no shortage of other countries. It’s illegal on both sides of conflicts - like Russia and Ukraine (possession in Ukraine by itself is grounds for up to 3 years in prison). Some countries like Australia permit it, but “extreme” content (aka anything not “vanilla”) is technically illegal regardless of the age of the viewer. This is also not necessarily based on religion: China is officially atheist, Vietnam is as well, but both will put you in prison for importing it. Ironically, it is post-Christian countries that are most tolerant. From the global stage, America is not some overly puritanical country while everyone else goes along without religious purity concerns. The big view is that the majority of countries censor it or ban it, even democratic ones, with no religious motive required. The Western world is the exception, but that’s changing in the UK, Australia, and now the US with age gating, payment processor refusal, or other restrictions.

selimthegrim 1y ago
Japan has censorship as a result of the American occupation.
- gjsman-1000 1y ago
  Correct; otherwise it would likely be illegal in Japan completely, judging by the nations around them.
  - latentsea 1y ago
    Are you kidding me?
kanbara 1y ago
japan has fully legal drawn porn of children and tentacle beasts and whatever else, you just need small bars over genitals and beasts. you can buy it in a bookstore anywhere across the country freely, how is this not “down” with adult content? weird take

tptacek 1y ago

We just had a thread on this; probably don't need to recycle 2024 stories for it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44606184 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44606184

gsf_emergency_2 1y ago
What if people find an endless source of intellectual nourishment in the proxy wars between chargeback ("pay-neutral") culture and puritan culture https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44621081 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44621081 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44629685 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44629685 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44629982 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44629982 https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/1caxsmc/japanese_adult_games_dev_take_on_credit_card/l0z1ixd/ https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/1caxsmc/japan...

xterminator 1y ago

Each country central bank should have its own national payment processing system. Why is this not a thing? Spain has Bizum, for example.

bobthepanda 1y ago
FedNow is relatively new for the US in 2024. One thing to note is that by design, the US banking system is very decentralized and that makes any sort of migration or mandate like herding cats. There are 141 banks in Spain and 4135 in the US. US banks are generally not allowed to exceed 10% of deposits through mergers and there are only three passing that threshold; JPMorgan Chase at 15%, BofA at 14%, and Wells Fargo at 11%.
- evan_a_a 1y ago
  The EU has already figured this out with the recently passed instant payments regulation [0]. As of 2024 are 5,304 banks in the EU [1], so the number of banks really isn’t an excuse. The US banking system lags the rest of world by a mile, because there is no will to force modernization. [0] https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/integration/retail/instant_payments/html/instant_payments_regulation.en.html https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/integration/retail/instant_pa... [1] https://www.ebf.eu/factsandfigures/ https://www.ebf.eu/factsandfigures/
  - bobthepanda 1y ago
    The regulation passed in 2024 which is the same year as FedNow. Am I missing something?
    - evan_a_a 1y ago
      FedNow is a technological solution for instant payments, not a regulation. It’s a voluntary system for the banks to join. Further, banks are not required to offer instant payment services to their customers. The analogous technological solution in the EU is TIPS [0], which has been operational since 2018. The IPR is a regulation that requires banks to support instant payments and offer them to customers. [0]: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/target/tips/html/index.en.html https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/target/tips/html/index.en.htm...

numpad0 1y ago

I don't buy that the attack on Steam was just some Australian cult activist groups. This isn't one off event anyway. They're just a distraction. What's urgently needed is payment neutrality, like net neutrality. It's absurd that the net was discussed more heavily and way earlier than cash.

kelseyfrog 1y ago
Why not? The celebrated it as their own success.
- michaelt 1y ago
  There are also a lot of religious anti-pornography folks in America, and with views on sexuality they are eager to impose on others. I doubt the pressure came from Australia alone. And there's a long history of people taking credit for things they were barely involved with. It would be an awful shame if free-speech-loving Americans' anger at the action American payment processors towards an American game distributor were diverted to some unreachable, unaccountable group on the other side of the world.
  - kelseyfrog 1y ago
    Who is saying that it was AUS alone? The signatories are majority Australian then UK and one or two US depending on how you count (UK working in the US).
  - gjsman-1000 1y ago
    The majority of the world censors or bans pornography, not just America. In Vietnam, China, Russia, Ukraine, just to name examples, you can go to literal prison for possession, not just pay a fine. Ukraine considers possession alone grounds for up to 3 years. This is despite Vietnam and China all-but-requiring atheism to run for positions. I think this is sufficient to show there are plenty of non-religious reasons to refuse involvement. Framing pornography as a purely religious issue is a misdirection.

LorenPechtel 1y ago

No. Democracy is endangered by the fact that the government likes to use payment processors to stomp on stuff near the edges. The dogs on the right rallies around when the government tries to pressure gunmakers, the cats on the left don't rally around such threats very well.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

hnpolicestate 1y ago

You will have better luck getting people to adopt Monero than to get legislatures to pass payment neutrality. Same with enforcement. The trend in Western democracies is less freedom, more control, more surveillance etc. Mind you, both odds are negligible.

draxter65 1y ago

The same payment companies are very happy to take payments on porn sites. This manufactured outrage makes no sense. It's scary what a rather small activist group can accomplish.

nine_k 1y ago
Not at all. Square, Stripe, PayPal all outright refuse to deal with anything porn. Visa and Mastercard put out severe limitations, and (AFAICT) refuse to process payments to sites like pornhub. This is not only due to reputation risks (even though these are real), but also because of the higher rates of fraud and chargebacks. I'd say that anything that by its nature materially hampers the customer's ability to think rationally is risky for a payment processor, because it will always be a fertile ground for fraud and scams. Porn and gambling are obvious examples; alcohol is another, but (strong) alcohol is usually pretty strictly regulated, down to state-run monopolies in a number of countries.
- draxter65 1y ago
  My friend can confirm that regular visa/master card transations work on porn sites and onlyfans!
  - cindyllm 1y ago
    [dead]

atleastoptimal 1y ago

Other's have said this but it isn't a moral crusade by the payment processors', but rather their capitulation to various moralizing advocacy groups.

r33b33 1y ago

Just use bitcoin

hsuduebc2 1y ago

A handful of US companies take a cut from nearly every payment on the planet, and now they’re caving to pressure from Twitter mobs and puritan lobbies, censoring global content just to avoid upsetting shareholders. Visa and Mastercard haven’t brought anything new in years. Their infrastructure still dominates out of habit, not merit. Meanwhile, alternatives like stablecoins and European systems like EPI or the digital euro are gaining ground. Their boldness is honestly surprising, especially now that real competition is finally emerging.

sherrycoles9 1y ago

[dead]

o999 1y ago

Let's remember that there is no real "democracy" out there, activism and strikes are declared illegal/terrorism/threat in Europe and North America when it crosses the boundaries of the elite oligarchs. US rail strikes, Canada truckers strikes, anti-genocide protests, anti-deportation protests, etc.. Online crackdown on journalism under the pretext of "graphic" content is an everyday occurrence. So talking about ban on adult content in that context is naive at best.

sucupira 1y ago

[dead]

sucupira 1y ago

[dead]

Kate5477 1y ago

[dead]

mirgova5 1y ago

Hello everyone, my name is Mirgova I'm from Czech Republic but currently based in the United States I want to use this opportunity to say big thank you to DAREK Recovery for they helped me recover my stolen crypto worth $620,000 through their hacking skills I got my money back in less than 48 hours after contacting them on recoverydarek@gmail.com I’m so glad I came across them early because I thought I was never going to get my money back from those fake online investment websites.

sharonkeller 1y ago

[dead]