Alfred TwuJul 25

Summary thread & call to action on payment processor censorship, and why it's become a big issue among in the LGBTQ community and among artists.

Lobbied by conservative activists, payment processing companies have pressured businesses into removing games, books, etc from online stores.

While the censorship is initially aimed at adult content, some non-adult LGBTQ works also get censored, and the larger issue is that other works could get censored by payment processing companies (some of those behind the censorship have openly said they want to do this)

First, what is a payment processor? These are companies such as Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Paypal, etc, that process payments from customers buying stuff from retailers, in exchange for a fee.

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Show threadAlfred TwuJul 25

Steam, the largest online seller of video games, was targeted earlier this month. Like any business, they can choose what they sell, and they already had existing rules of their own that ban certain content. Now payment processors wanted them to censor additional things, or risk losing service.

There's a power imbalance. Payment processors make money from everything on food to rent, and even if they stopped doing business with the whole game industry (which is bigger than movies & music combined), they'd be fine. On the other hand, if a retailer gets cut off, they're in big trouble.

As a result, when payment processors tell a retailer what they can or cannot sell, the retailer has no choice but to do as told. Other online retailers are now getting told what to do as well. 2/

Show threadAlfred Twu

Earlier this week, Itch, a smaller website where people sell indie games, books, etc. suddenly hid from search only all adult content, but also some non-adult LGBTQ content. Some works were removed entirely, & some sellers have reported that they're not getting payouts for previous sales. Unlike a government, payment processors aren't accountable to the public, but have the power to censor.

LGBTQ works and other diverse works are at risk of censorship. Right wing activists and politicians have publicly said they want to do this by defining anything LGBTQ-related as adults only.

Now that they've caved to lobbying on one issue, boring businesses like payment processors are going to be subject to all sorts of lobbying, a road that leads to a politicized, fragmented, and fraud-prone online payments ecosystem. 3/

Jul 25 at 8:29pmWeb
Show threadAlfred TwuJul 25

There is a counter-campaign to call the payment processors and demand they reverse the censorship, see here for who to call and write https://bsky.app/profile/meltingcomet.com/post/3luqlzgxkz222

A lot of these payment processors are headquartered in California. If you're a vendor that's been discriminated against (for example, if you're an LGBTQ artist whose content has been censored) you can file a civil rights complaint at https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/complaintprocess/

New California state law may also be needed to require large payment processors to accept payments for any legal business, similar to how a utility or railroad have to serve everyone. Talk to your state legislators. 4/

CHI XU (@meltingcomet.com)

i worked with our director RJ to put together a web page compiling phone numbers, emails, and petitions where you can make your voice heard - protect queer artists and sex workers and tell payment processing companies to end their awful policies harming safe spaces for creative art [contains quote post or other embedded content]

Bluesky Social
Show threadericjames* (he/they/it)    Jul 25
@alfredtwu i think you mean "hid from search not only all adult content"