this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
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If MasterCard doesn't have control over the NSFW bans, there is an easy way to solve this:
Announce that they are explicitly allowing NSFW purchases.
If they won't do that, then one of two things are true:
Yep and yet they won't because it's incredibly convenient for them to be able to maintain that kind of control while disavowing it at the same time.
The proliferation of doublethink within the last ten years has been incredibly frightening.
Social media echo chambers made us tolerant to extreme opinions and irrational ideas presented as facts. Nobody fights back against bullshit anymore.
The point is that this would force them to show their hand. Either they will exercise control in this situation or they won't.
If they don't, problem solved; and, if they do then we know who the problem is.
Surely there are categories you think should be banned. MasterCard won't buy you heroin on the street corner. This has already been a thing, the only difference is now they came for our porn I guess.
Buying illegal drugs is, well, illegal.
Buying porn with money is fully legal. Buying a porn magazine at a brick and mortar store is fully legal. Buying fucking sex toys online and at a brick and mortar store is fully legal.
MasterCard banning a specific category of goods because a small, yet vocal, group of people think they shouldn't exist is not only absolutely stupid but anticompetitive.
Okay, but If the sex toy store was named "use these toys on fake dolls of children", then MasterCard likely wouldnt do business there either.
You are aware of what type of content was being targeted here right?
Which would contradict their statement:
A store named "use these toys on fake dolls of children" is horribly distasteful but not illegal.
I can agree that maybe that type of content shouldn't be sold, but I also understand that's my personal opinion and not necessarily the law. Me, you or Visa or Mastercard should not be in a position to dictate whether it's acceptable to sell such content.
EVEN IF a store was named "use these toys on fake dolls of children" (because this name would likely not even pass local laws but let's put that aside), the store can sell cookies and take MasterCard.
I'm going to play devil's advocate since the OOP is doing a terrible job of arguing their point.
If my brick and mortar store sold incest books, MasterCard could say, "We don't like how you sell this one book or category of books."
Like...fine. In which case they are being anticompetitive. The books aren't illegal. Distasteful, perhaps, but you don't see me complaining to MasterCard for processing bakery transactions, just because I hate gluten.
The article addresses the topic of how quickly the banning of this kind of material can get out of hand:
Themes like “incest” and “rape” were pulled from Steam.
While distasteful to most, these are not illegal in pornography (local laws may differ). Hell, even snuff films are legal as long as they’re simulated (and not real video of actual murder). However, because of payment processors mainstream porn sites won’t host them.
For the most part films of illegal stuff happening are very much legal (no matter whether "simulated" or real), and it might even be legal selling them provided you have the correct rights to them.
Not their business what I do with my own money.
Their business is letting me spend my money in ways I see fut for my budget.
Yeah, there are categories I think should be banned. But should they actually be banned just because I want them to be? Only if they are illegal. Some things are legal that I think shouldn't be, but that doesn't change the fact that it is legal, whether I want it to be or not. Therefore, so long as it is legal, transactions should be allowed whether I like them or not.
Untill they make it my problem, I don't care about what people are paying for.
I don't think giving that kind of arbitrary power to a small number of private entities is a great idea.
By the government? Yep
By a private entitiy? Ummm...No?