PH is having problems due to so much "user uploaded" content that they can not verify the identity of the actors contained within. The difference now is that Mastercard is enforcing the rules rather than the US Government which had USC2257 in place for many years with the same requirements. The difference this time is that MC is global(and controls these sites income) and USGov is not, so MC is actually able to enforce this. Adult content sites with their IDs in order(as all US based ones should have already) will have no problem under the new rules. It's not a closing down of the business its actual enforcement of rules that have been on the books for 20+ years by a private entity instead of the lax USGov.
Lets be real, if PH had a way to take monies without having to clean up to save face for the card issuers, it would still be business as usual.
It’s my understanding that PornHub have purged out non-verified content to fully comply with things such as USC2257 and gone further than the letter of the law in a desire to clean up their image and yet MasterCard, Visa and Discover still refuse them.
This is not as simple as “follow the law”. OnlyFans already appears to require sufficient identification that at least for account owners they pass the USC2257 bar, so content featuring just the account holder should completely pass legal scrutiny in the USA.
Yet they still have this pressure from MasterCard and the discussion isn’t about type of adult content (performers other than the account holder) it’s about all adult content. This is someone who saw the successful pressure tactics work on PornHub and wants to go further.
It’s also important to remember that MasterCard and Visa don’t directly offer services to anyone but banks/payment processors, so while there are “high risk” payment processors such as CCBill, etc, MasterCard as network operators are saying “for these specific people… no”.
My point is that the sky isn’t falling and none of these rules are new, just finally being enforced by a different entity. I’m aware that visa/mc doesn’t offer services directly to merchants. But they still set the rules the ipsp’s( like cc bill, epoch, etc), merchant banks and others have to enforce on their shared clients. I have yet to see evidence of anyone being singled out, if you have, please share, otherwise it’s just a conspiracy theory. And frankly, anyone well informed has wondered why these companies were allowed to get away with this stuff for so long. They dared to keep pushing the limit of their agreements and skirted regs/laws via thousands of shell corps for too long. Time to pay the Piper. Between letting anyone upload anything, flaunting copyright, DMCA, and all the credit cross sell stuff, plus hiding is strange jurisdictions, tax avoidance, regulatory avoidance, etc. It’s about time!
Either way, responsible, well ran adult companies aren’t having processing issues. I think even PayPal is talking adult content sites again.
I must give kudos to you for appearing to have a deeper knowledge of the p-tube segment of the industry than the average commenter here. I am more in agreement with your sentiment due to the various aspects you mention,
However i can't say the sky is not falling - it concerns me that this form of payment cancel culture will spread, and will be weaponized beyond the issues brought up for reasons to block PH and OF -
So long as it's easy for the V/MC mafia to boot places like them with out worrying about new competition or regulation, it will likely continue to be used in more nefarious campaigns of cancel in the future.
well ran large adult companies may enjoy the moat effects of smaller processing pools with higher fees, and I am glad to see paypal now accepting adult things..
However the higher fees and the smaller pool of processors willing to accept business with adult sites puts smaller and newer publishers at a huge disadvantage. Playboy may absorb the high fees and have no trouble finding banks willing to take their money - but the average wanna-be independent OF type influencer or independent cam girl will be set with high fees and lack of options for processing.
The small player must also be more worried about being cancelled and having their whole financial means terminated on a whim with no recourse - and to think that it would be easy for these companies to brush it off.
Not that I think v/MC should be forced by regulation to get money for every rando on the net with a cam - but we should be looking for easier alternatives for smaller groups to avoid being unbanked by a vocal minority.
I don't know if the answer is easier crypto, or some sort of rules to say if you process visa / mc you must also take some non-partisan cards / accounts that do not rely on credit ratings / moral objections - and not charge big fees - or something else entirely - but it's something I think is worth worrying about at this point.
Thoughtful response, and nice to find someone that has a reasonable knowledge on the matter as well.
I do agree with your point about cancel culture and payments, it is rather scary what/who else they could come after. If they want to be a payment platform, they shouldn’t be picking sides and just be enforcing what laws they fall under instead. But the cut off public opinion is a harsh and unpredictable place.
I wonder if the reason "sexually explicit content" isn't allowed is because that generally involves a partner. I believe OF requires ID verification before you can do _anything_ as a creator, so they're trying to curb that by making it essentially a solo website.
It might be a better idea to require all participants in videos to have their OF account linked and tagged in the video.
Lets be real, if PH had a way to take monies without having to clean up to save face for the card issuers, it would still be business as usual.