Please, don't post articles "this/that store ban nsfw content": it's payment system (like Visa/MasterCard) that want to regulate/take control of censorship above your government.
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What happens when anti-porn organisations like Collective Shout go after the currency exchanges?
Presumably they do what Visa/Mastercard should have done, and tell them to shove it. It’s just a bunch of uppity idiots from Australia, no one HAS to listen to them…
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Melinda Tankard Reist.
Michael Miebach.
Ryan McInerney.
Humans > branding and corporation names.
When CVS “used racist AI” I didn’t see a single goddamn peep about the CEOs in charge while they had that policy.
We should name the board and the whole leadership system but at least mentioning CEOs would be a great start.
Yes!
This is exactly correct. Thank you.
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If only the Internet hadn’t spent the last decade collectively shitting on crypto instead of maybe learning a bit about how it works and what it could be used for.
If only crypto hadn’t turned out to be the 21st-century version of fine art for money laundering and/or a Ponzi scheme designed to separate fools from their money…
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Presumably they do what Visa/Mastercard should have done, and tell them to shove it. It’s just a bunch of uppity idiots from Australia, no one HAS to listen to them…
Crypto markets also need payment processors if people are going to buy and sell crypto.
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Can you directly pay for porn on Twitter?
Do you need to pay to access Steam and play games? The answer is no - there are free games on Steam and also forum features that allow you to post media content too. From that standpoint they’re in the same boat. The difference is the platform’s intended use.
I think the real issue isn’t about Visa and MasterCard trying to gatekeep/censor this. The talk should be about we as a society haven’t matured enough to be willing to talk about our own bodies as humans and human nature with our own kids. If you look at what’s shown on mainstream TV around the world, off the top of my head, Europe seems to be a lot more mature about it than many parts elsewhere.
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Do you know that or are you speculating?
Corporations do not give a single fuck about “angry, organized people”, only money.
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What happens when anti-porn organisations like Collective Shout go after the currency exchanges?
You don’t need exchanges.
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More than a request, I think it’s a deserving clarification. We’re getting mob outrage against Valve, Itch.io etc… while it’s just Visa/MasterCard/Paypal laughing on everyone back.
Thanks reading my TEDx
I mean, it’s a nanny organization called Collective Shout that is claiming responsibility for these recent product bans/removals. They just pressured the payment processors instead of the companies who own the stores this time. And it worked.
The nanny group sucks the most here. The payment processors suck for acquiescing to the nanny group, and everyone else sucks for acquiescing to the payment processors.
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They care about bad PR. Angry, organized people can create lots of bad PR.
Look, this whole subthread is jumping to conclusions based on speculation. Maybe they are using legal strategies, but that’s not obvious.
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The short term strategy would probably be to introduce Y payment processor and make it the preferred method of payment. Encourage it’s use industry wide and encourage consumers to adopt that method as widely as possible.
If that takes off… Then they can tell the other processors to get fucked.
Changing payment processors/engaging a new one is anything but a short term thing to implement. Otherwise Mastercard and Visa wouldn’t be in this situation to have this level of control to begin with.
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They care about bad PR. Angry, organized people can create lots of bad PR.
Look, this whole subthread is jumping to conclusions based on speculation. Maybe they are using legal strategies, but that’s not obvious.
Don’t believe that either.
I’m not jumping to conclusions, I’m asking questions.
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More than a request, I think it’s a deserving clarification. We’re getting mob outrage against Valve, Itch.io etc… while it’s just Visa/MasterCard/Paypal laughing on everyone back.
Thanks reading my TEDx
I get your point, but the stores are still caving. They are still playing ball and banning things. That needs to be remembered too.
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I mean, it’s a nanny organization called Collective Shout that is claiming responsibility for these recent product bans/removals. They just pressured the payment processors instead of the companies who own the stores this time. And it worked.
The nanny group sucks the most here. The payment processors suck for acquiescing to the nanny group, and everyone else sucks for acquiescing to the payment processors.
The payment processors have the final say and have done this multiple times in the past, i wouldnt be surprised of the “nanny” was secretly paid by them to find this shit for them to censor.
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Changing payment processors/engaging a new one is anything but a short term thing to implement. Otherwise Mastercard and Visa wouldn’t be in this situation to have this level of control to begin with.
If 50 Cent could sell album for crypto from his nothing website a decade ago I feel like Valve has the technical wherewithal to implement one of 1,000 preexisting checkout solutions in the short term.
I think selling steam giftcards (an existing solution they’re already using) at a markdown to expand that business would be pretty viable for a company that regularly marks their products down by up to 90%.
They could literally do both of these almost instantly as preferred options while still accepting the big cards.
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I get your point, but the stores are still caving. They are still playing ball and banning things. That needs to be remembered too.
Unfortunately, the alternative is that they cease to exist almost instantly. This is what happens when we allow monopolies and trusts.
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What happens when anti-porn organisations like Collective Shout go after the currency exchanges?
What exactly would they demand from them? A cryptocurrency exchange is not like a credit card company which has a direct relationship with every customer and vendor and is in direct control of transactions, instead they just handle buying and selling of decentralized currencies which are transacted permissionlessly on their own networks.
It’s a lot more like cash, especially the ones designed for privacy.
That said, stablecoins might also be a target, since they have freeze functions, I could see that becoming a problem.
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Yeah it wasn’t the internet’s fault that it became a ponzi scheme for techbros. Bitcoin got co-opted from its original use first, then became a laughingstock.
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Well if you want to peel the onion another layer, you should really be mad at laywers and our litigious society as a whole, payment processors don’t have morality, nothing in capitalism does - they are responding, just like valve, to external pressures.
I don’t buy that, why would they have to care what these people think? Credit card companies have a history of being hostile to adult content, I think it’s because the people who own them have an interest in controlling others.
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If only crypto hadn’t turned out to be the 21st-century version of fine art for money laundering and/or a Ponzi scheme designed to separate fools from their money…
It turned out to be exactly what it was designed to be, a tool for making financial transactions online without needing anyone’s permission.
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If 50 Cent could sell album for crypto from his nothing website a decade ago I feel like Valve has the technical wherewithal to implement one of 1,000 preexisting checkout solutions in the short term.
I think selling steam giftcards (an existing solution they’re already using) at a markdown to expand that business would be pretty viable for a company that regularly marks their products down by up to 90%.
They could literally do both of these almost instantly as preferred options while still accepting the big cards.
Some additional context to my previous comment: I work tech in the financial industry. I have some experience with payment processors and the stupid amount of bullshit around all this stuff. “They could do both of these things almost instantly” is a big assumption holding the entirety of the weight for your argument.
Anyway.
50 Cent was doing a one off publicity stunt, not trying to ensure continued existence as a company. How many mainstream artists are still doing that? I shouldn’t have to say that this is very much an apples and oranges comparison.
Your other idea has legs, but it’s still suggesting that Valve try entering a game of financial chicken with Visa and Mastercard. Effectively infinite money. And in the meantime most users would just be pissed off at Valve for making it harder to buy anything. We’re already seeing people attack itch.io for not standing up instead of bei g pissed at the payment processors.
Valve can’t make purchasing through a different processor a requirement for some games but not others because Visa and Mastercard said “stop selling games with this content entirely, or we stop processing your transactions entirely”. So anything they do will have to effect all transactions.
I’m frustrated Valve didn’t do more, and that they’ve not made any public statements about trying to fight this, but Valve isn’t just leaving money on the table because they’re lazy or dumb.
