OnlyFans to ban adult material after pressure from payment processors

[Admiral Yi]

I find it concerning that financial institutions seem to have a veto power over businesses.  Maybe you don't mind them cracking down on porn sites, but what checks are in place to keep them from imposing judgements on other kinds of businesses?  In democratic societies, I think those with monopolistic power need to be answerable to the public in some way.

I don't know for sure but I don't think it's all that discretionary.  Fear of prosecution is not at their discretion.

[DGuller]

I find it concerning that financial institutions seem to have a veto power over businesses.  Maybe you don't mind them cracking down on porn sites, but what checks are in place to keep them from imposing judgements on other kinds of businesses?  In democratic societies, I think those with monopolistic power need to be answerable to the public in some way.

I don't know for sure but I don't think it's all that discretionary.  Fear of prosecution is not at their discretion.

In some ways that's even worse.  If payment processors engage in censorship in response to threat from the government, then that makes it a government censorship rather than an abuse of monopoly power.  It's a more subtle form of censorship than having laws passed to that effect, but just as effective, and with fewer avenues of redress.

[Admiral Yi]

In some ways that's even worse.  If payment processors engage in censorship in response to threat from the government, then that makes it a government censorship rather than an abuse of monopoly power.  It's a more subtle form of censorship than having laws passed to that effect, but just as effective, and with fewer avenues of redress.

We're talking about child pornography.  You can call that censorship but it kind of misses the point.

[DGuller]

In some ways that's even worse.  If payment processors engage in censorship in response to threat from the government, then that makes it a government censorship rather than an abuse of monopoly power.  It's a more subtle form of censorship than having laws passed to that effect, but just as effective, and with fewer avenues of redress.

We're talking about child pornography.  You can call that censorship but it kind of misses the point.

We're not actually talking about child pornography.  We're talking about something which may get you swept up under child pornography laws through no guilty intent of your own, but that's a whole other problematic can of worms.  The threat of being classified as aiding child abuse or terrorism is another way to deploy government censorship without calling it such, and it's already widely used in some countries.

[viper37]

In some ways that's even worse.  If payment processors engage in censorship in response to threat from the government, then that makes it a government censorship rather than an abuse of monopoly power.  It's a more subtle form of censorship than having laws passed to that effect, but just as effective, and with fewer avenues of redress.

We're talking about child pornography.  You can call that censorship but it kind of misses the point.

I found more details.  As I suspected, most of these cases involve teens with fake IDs.
Link

[...]Warning: Story contains adult themes and language

There is a range of content on the site but it is best known for pornography, and requires users to be over 18.

OnlyFans was a big winner during the pandemic, exploding in popularity as much of the world was housebound. The social media platform has grown nearly 10-fold since 2019, and now has more than 120 million users.

Some creators have become millionaires from their accounts, yet for most it has been a lifeline or a second income during the pandemic.

But BBC News has investigated concerns that under-18s are selling explicit videos on the site, despite it being illegal for individuals to post or share indecent images of children.

As part of our investigation, we found that one 17-year-old from a suburb in the south-east of England had sold videos of herself masturbating and playing with sex toys, while an under-18 participated in graphic videos hosted on an adult account in Nevada, US, in breach of the company's terms and conditions.

We were also able to set up an account for an underage creator, by using a 26-year-old's identification, showing how the site's age-verification process could be cheated.
[...]

Basically, most cases involve some help to cheat the system.  I'm not surprised the algorythm can't detect a girl using her sister's id.  That's probably the oldest trick in the book for underaged girls&boys who want to get into places reserved for 18+, like clubs&bars, use the ID of their sibling.  Humans often have trouble detecting it.

The more shocking stories seems designed specifically for shock value and don't seem to represent a real trend, unlike Pornhub/Mindgeek who basically didn't check anything and relied on an handful of people to check a sample of the videos posted everyday.

[The Brain]

Seems to me that there is a market for a non-crypto-currency payment service that is fine with everything that is legal.

In the UK, is it illegal to have done business with someone who later turns out to have been committing crimes?

[jimmy olsen]

I'm always surprised when businesses decide they don't want to make money any more. It's a bit like when Tumblr banned sexual content and "female presenting nipples". I also don't understand why banks care about this - I mean they must have lots of unsavoury business customers. Seems weird to care too much about porn.

They're all terrified of child pornography.

Don't European banks deal with lots of legal sex workers though? Brothels are legal in Germany, Spain, etc. Is it just because it's the internet?

[Syt]

In the UK, is it illegal to have done business with someone who later turns out to have been committing crimes?

Probably not, but it will become more muddled once you know about it, I presume.

[Admiral Yi]

We're not actually talking about child pornography.  We're talking about something which may get you swept up under child pornography laws through no guilty intent of your own, but that's a whole other problematic can of worms.  The threat of being classified as aiding child abuse or terrorism is another way to deploy government censorship without calling it such, and it's already widely used in some countries.

We're talking about something that has the potential to be child pornography.  How is Visa supposed to know if a girl is 17 or 18?

[garbon]

Perhaps Visa should limit (eliminate?) the ability of men to make purchases. Aren't men more likely to purchase porn? There is the potential that some of it could be child pornography. How is Visa suppose to know?

[Josquius]

So it sounds like the sensible thing would have been just to put much stricter validation in place on the site.
Yet they aren't doing that and are instead killing their business which suggests it somehow isn't as sensible as it appears on the surface.
Odd.

[Sheilbh]

People noting that OnlyFans CEO (since 2019) was previously Director of Risk Management at Lehman's during the unpleasantness.

[Valmy]

Perhaps Visa should limit (eliminate?) the ability of men to make purchases. Aren't men more likely to purchase porn? There is the potential that some of it could be child pornography. How is Visa suppose to know?

You make a good point!

But then some men might lie about their gender! How is Visa supposed to know? Best to just limit the ability of everybody to make purchases just to be safe.

[Valmy]

So it sounds like the sensible thing would have been just to put much stricter validation in place on the site.
Yet they aren't doing that and are instead killing their business which suggests it somehow isn't as sensible as it appears on the surface.
Odd.

That sounds like a lot of work though

[garbon]

Perhaps Visa should limit (eliminate?) the ability of men to make purchases. Aren't men more likely to purchase porn? There is the potential that some of it could be child pornography. How is Visa suppose to know?

You make a good point!

But then some men might lie about their gender! How is Visa supposed to know? Best to just limit the ability of everybody to make purchases just to be safe.

Well thought out.