Credit Card Companies Censorship Carnival

You know I normally don't get into the "panic awareness spreading scarebait" or whatever, but if UK bros have to either show their face and ID, or not get any hentai tiddy, that really sucks man. Especially if that might spread to everywhere eventually.

It started with sites like DLsite for Japanese games, but soon Steam, Itch.io, and Patreon were hit too. Patreon, for instance, had to comply by removing a bunch of fictional kinks. But where does it end? The ultimate goal seems to be forcing everyone to self-ID with a face reveal into an internet database, which sucks ass and it's a huge privacy threat. Some might say, "It doesn't matter if I haven't done anything bad," right? But the list of things considered "bad" by governments, banks, and payment processors keeps growing.

It began with obvious fringe and widely frowned-upon niches like lolicon and bestiality. Then it targeted hypnosis and anime with big eyes because "anime looks too young to us." Some sites, like Gumroad, have gone further, banning all NSFW art altogether. Let’s not forget: we’re talking about fictional drawings here, an important distinction.

Now, sites like rule34.xxx have restricted access from the UK to avoid complying with this invasion of privacy. This shows how it can get worse for all of us who enjoy sexy content, even if it’s just vanilla like mine.

Some argue that protecting kids from adult content is ok, and of course it is, but that should be a task for parents to protect their own children, and not for payment processors to decide on behalf of everyone. That's just a ridiculous overreach.

I don’t have much power against this, of course, but I can at least warn you and share some info. Who knows? Maybe one of you is a senator, or your cousin works at Mastercard or something 😂. In the meantime, consider saving your database of hentai, or start using smaller adult sites, just in case! Anyway, let’s hope things improve in the near future.

Here are some related links!

• A change.org petition (mostly useless honestly, but at least can get some conversation started)

• a Specific UK petition, I've read those are more useful but I guess you have to be a citizen

• Steam guidelines update (#15: Must comply with adult policies from Cards, banks and/or ISPs)

• Itch.io delisting and auditing adult games

• Japan sanctioned VISA but not necessarily related to this specific censorship issue

• Rule34.xxx message on restricting UK access

• long thread with info and details on credit card vague censorship rules