This. Especially back in the 90s, it was disgusting how easily the US government leaned on the major payment networks and banks, absent any law or illegality, to disconnect the porn industry.
Call me old fashioned, but if that's a thing you want to do in a democracy, there should be a legal basis passed through the legislative branch...
It was never the US government? It was always done by advocacy groups with good law firms suing Visa for _whatever_ until Visa """voluntarily""" censored porn payments.
Primarily through leveraging the power of the AG to apply on-the-books obscenity laws to material which previously hadn't been targeted as such.
When the courts took a dim view towards that, they decided they could get quicker wins by making it clear to Visa et al. that things would be uncomfortable if they didn't "voluntarily" choose to stop doing business with pornographic companies.
Call me old fashioned, but if that's a thing you want to do in a democracy, there should be a legal basis passed through the legislative branch...