Ask Lemmy

This has been happening quietly for a long time. It exploded now because it crept into new segments like Steam. That is mostly driven by a few conservative groups applying pressure to credit card processors.

You won't find porn sites with certain content; in particular, blood or scat play. Now, neither one is to my personal liking, but I don't think it should be blocked as long as everyone involved consents. You might find amateur videos of it, but never anything from a professional studio. That is quite simply because credit card processors forbid it.

(My source is one of the interviews that Kink.com does before a scene, which they always leave in the edit they post to their pay site. I'd have to search a lot to find the specific one. Suffice it to say that one of the models mentioned "no scat" as a hard limit, and the director said that their payment processor wouldn't allow it, anyway.)

It's also impossible to remake the old Taboo series as is. Faux-incest scenes go out of their way to mention they're all a step family (seriously, how many step children does Cory Chase have? This doesn't seem physically possible.) This is all credit card industry pressure, as well, and while I wish the genre wasn't as prevalent as it is, the setup dialog gets really silly and contorted because of this restriction.

Trying to see what they can get away with. Can I control other things too? I was allowd to dictate how people spend their money here, so why not there?

because conservatives are lobbying them to, and they don't give a shit either way. they know they can't be replaced without upsetting a huge part of the consumer economy, so it's easier for them to capitulate than spend any effort fighting it, because they'll still be making billions and billions each year either way. they give absolutely zero fucks if they're doing business with a fascist regime or not. they're betting that the fascists are going to eventually win, so that's where they're sticking their eggs.

It's all in in black and white in Project 2025.

Ban porn > Categorize LGBT as Porn > LGBT is crime > LGBT in prison

Religious zealots and bigots were given the reigns. This is what we get.

Regarding payment processing specifically, they are under direct pressure from religious lobbyists and are folding like a cheap suit.

Project 2025. They literally bragged about the shit they wanted to do while claiming they had nothing to do with it.

It baffles me that people are surprised this is happening, but a large majority of the voting population either doesn't care or are ok with this.

Probably to make more money

Soon porn and masturbation will be crimes.

Punishable by life sentences to slavery.

The only reason these companies would turn down money is if the cost of not doing that was greater. The only reason for that would be a tyrannical government threatening them. The only reason for that would be religious zealots at the helm of the tyrannical government.

They're being lobbied to do it by religious organizations who have identified them as a weak point in freedom of speech. See, for example, mortality in media, exodus cry

I hope out of principle: Porn should be freely accessible where laws permit access to porn.

They can't make money if they are not processing payments, and It's very VERY unlike the financial sector not to take money from others anyway they can. So there must be some reason they make more money* excluding porn than including it.

* Not per se as a company, more likely as individuals running such a company.

I see two possible explanations:

1. Class warfare. The same people banning porn are the ones banning abortion, banning homosexuality, banning gender transitions (although they never seem to ban the same therapies for cis people), banning sex education, banning contraception. All of these attacks on individual sexuality are to try to push people into unprotected heterosexual sex. At the same time, these same political groups have been attacking both parental support systems and child labor laws. They want parents too desperate to rebel. They want children working. They want a larger supply of labor: more supply means more competition amongst workers for wages, which means the labor is cheaper.

2. Power. Maybe these payments processors don't actually care about pornographic games. But attacking pornography in the name of "defending women and children" is easy to sell to the public and sets a precedent for these payment processors violating neutrality. So eventually they will move to banning games that are too violent (well, they've already been trying for decades). Then it'll be games that are too "extreme" or promote "terrorism". If these payment processors don't see any consequences soon, I expect in the next 5 years they will try to take down any games that are anti-Zionist. Maybe games that are pro-Ukraine. In 10 years it could be any sort of left-leaning game. Disco Elysium for promoting communism. Horizon for depicting climate change. Stardew Valley for allowing same-sex relationships and being anti-corporate.

Notice that these discussions never seem to apply to copaganda. It's perfectly fine to be violent and bloody as long as that violence is authorized by the state. The US Military offices have a well-documented relationship with Activision for Call of Duty, so you aren't going to see any of these groups call for CoD to be banned.

The ruling class deemed that's what they need to do, so that's what they do.

Personally, I think our rulers are getting upset that we're not spitting out babies as much as we used to, so their offspring will have fewer servants to boss around.

It's always acceptable to kill a rich person. Their culture and lifestyle results in magnitudes more death and suffering than if every rich person was hung.

Visa and Mastercard have been pushing against legal but morally questionable stuff for the last 15 or so years to my knowledge.

It will continue regardless of which administration is in power.

Control. Plan and simple.

No not just fascism but oligarchy too

Olism? Faciarchy?

Partly it's because of way more chargebacks.

Woman finds a strange entry in the credit card bill, husband insist it must be a scam.