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This has absolutely zero effect on Visa and Mastercard, they exist to make money and they’ll process any dollars they can, provided the chargeback and fraud rat

This has absolutely zero effect on Visa and Mastercard, they exist to make money and they’ll process any dollars they can, provided the chargeback and fraud rate is low enough. In the case of porn, it isn’t. They’d probably need to charge merchants 5-10% fees to cover the fraud and chargebacks on porn sites. Again, Visa and MC arent declining on ethical grounds, it’s not profitable for them without gouging merchants on processing fees.

wmf 1y ago
That's a common narrative but how do you explain Steam?
- quickthrowman 1y ago
  Maybe the chargeback rate on porn games is lower than actual pornography, the credit card statement will just say “Steam” or “Valve” instead of ‘Monthly subscription to kink.com”. Do you really think that Visa and MC are ethical organizations who listen to whiny Christian conservatives about porn? They’re giant money making machines, and porn is legal. If it was profitable, they’d allow it, their shareholders would demand it.
  - wmf 1y ago
    What's your explanation for why Visa/MC specifically demanded incest games to be banned from Steam? They can't even see which games are causing chargebacks.
  - ryoshoe 1y ago
    Their shareholders only demand the price stays up. Headlines claiming Visa and MC are associated with legal but morally controversial material is likely to hurt shares regardless of whether such claims are valid
shikshake 1y ago
I doubt it's ethics, but could payment processors be feeling pressure from political entities who are threatening policy action under the guise of ethics and morality? With the current administration, groups like this would have no trouble finding political backing.
- quickthrowman 1y ago
  That is a possibility I hadn’t considered, but from what I’ve seen, the porn age check laws and similar legislation are all at the state level vs federal level.
Phemist 1y ago
This does not make much sense. A 10% fee is acceptable if the alternative is significantly lowered sales (50% +) due to increased friction in the money transactions.. So if they are not declining on ethical grounds, and the merchant will definitely pay up the 10% processing fees, why are VISA and MC not offering the option?

wmf 1y ago

That's a common narrative but how do you explain Steam?

quickthrowman 1y ago
Maybe the chargeback rate on porn games is lower than actual pornography, the credit card statement will just say “Steam” or “Valve” instead of ‘Monthly subscription to kink.com”. Do you really think that Visa and MC are ethical organizations who listen to whiny Christian conservatives about porn? They’re giant money making machines, and porn is legal. If it was profitable, they’d allow it, their shareholders would demand it.
- wmf 1y ago
  What's your explanation for why Visa/MC specifically demanded incest games to be banned from Steam? They can't even see which games are causing chargebacks.
- ryoshoe 1y ago
  Their shareholders only demand the price stays up. Headlines claiming Visa and MC are associated with legal but morally controversial material is likely to hurt shares regardless of whether such claims are valid

shikshake 1y ago

I doubt it's ethics, but could payment processors be feeling pressure from political entities who are threatening policy action under the guise of ethics and morality? With the current administration, groups like this would have no trouble finding political backing.

quickthrowman 1y ago
That is a possibility I hadn’t considered, but from what I’ve seen, the porn age check laws and similar legislation are all at the state level vs federal level.

Phemist 1y ago

This does not make much sense. A 10% fee is acceptable if the alternative is significantly lowered sales (50% +) due to increased friction in the money transactions.. So if they are not declining on ethical grounds, and the merchant will definitely pay up the 10% processing fees, why are VISA and MC not offering the option?