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> Stripe (their payment process) will handle adult content payments. It puts the account into the high risk category due to the high rate of fraud in those cate
by eggbrain 4mo ago
> Stripe (their payment process) will handle adult content payments. It puts the account into the high risk category due to the high rate of fraud in those categories.
Stripe _says_ they will handle these type of payments, but more often than not, within roughly a year of implementation you'll get an email from them kicking you off their platform, no matter how vigilant you were, or even if the things you were selling were more rated R than rated X. Source: my own insider knowledge along with colleagues in the space.
- echelon 4mo agoWhy is this no longer on the front page of HN? This should be the top article. It's only an hour old and has hundreds up upvotes. The payments industry is strong arming free speech to promote religious fundamentalism. There is no such thing as vice content being higher risk. That's a diversion topic. Fewer and fewer people are hiding porn payments from their wives. We don't need the religious oligarchy dictating how you can live. Edit: it's back. Halfway down the page. A few minutes ago it was not on the home page at all and I had to search for it.
- slumberlust 4mo agoAre you viewing by the default page or active? Several of these articles were discussed last year when the processors were pressuring Valve. Maybe a little topic fatigue?
- infecto 4mo ago[flagged]
- mcphage 4mo ago> This is not free speech. Adult content is not a protected class. Why does adult content not count as speech?
- infecto 4mo agoUS civics 101. The first amendment mostly restricts government action. This is not a free speech issue unless you want to legislate that adult content is a protected class or want to make a special clause for payment processing. This is a perfect use case for crypto imo. If you are making an argument that new legislation needs to made, great but unfortunately people jump to the idea that this is immediately a free speech issue.
- Fargren 4mo agoFreedom of speech is not defined by the US constitution. Free speech is an ideological stance, not a legal definition. US laws protects some forms of free speech and not others.
- infecto 4mo agoGood luck with that. We can all day long discuss what is free speech and not free speech but unless it’s a protected class or a carveout for payment processors it does not matter. Propose solutions instead. You could argue that payment processors control so much of the market that it’s like the government limiting speech but I would counter argue that they could use crypto easily. Not to mention usually businesses use payment processors as the scape goat. Very few business, other than purpose built, want to deal with adult content.
- Worf 4mo agoCould a case be made not from a free speech POV but from a antitrust one?
- suburban_strike 4mo ago[flagged]
- nerdsniper 4mo agoCollective Shout is a Christian anti-rights organization wrapped in feminist cloth. The founder of Collective Shout previously successfully lobbied against mifepristone and opposed changes to legislation requiring pro-life pregnancy-counseling services to disclose their affiliations in their advertising. In 2004, she founded the anti-abortion lobby Women's Forum Australia.
- umbra07 4mo agoWhy are you jumping from "anti-abortion" to "Christian"?
- solid_fuel 4mo agoThat’s not a jump, it’s a straight line. These fundies like to dress it up but it’s transparently obvious to anyone who has dealt with religious fundamentalists that is their core driver.
- nerdsniper 4mo agoCollective Shout's primary PR release platform is "Eternity News", self-described as: > Published by Bible Society Australia, Eternity is a national media platform for Christians, designed to encourage, equip and inspire them by revealing what God is doing in our nation and beyond.
- RunSet 4mo ago> There is no "religious oligarchy" dictating anything. You might inform Peter Thiel. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/peter-thiel-lectures-antichrist https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/10/peter-thiel-...
- tptacek 4mo agoNo it isn't. It's struggling on the front page because this is a very old story and it's the same conversation every time: payment processors hate this stuff because digital goods are fraud and chargeback magnets, and that's doubly true of adult content.
- VerifiedReports 4mo agoIf U.S. credit-card issuers were worried about fraud, they would have implemented the other half of "chip-&-PIN," which the rest of the world has been using for decades. U.S. customers pretty much JUST got chips in our cards... but issuers "forgot" to implement the PIN part. Zero sympathy for this scumbag monopoly.
- codedokode 4mo agoIn my country you usually need to confirm payments with SMS OTP, except for trusted merchants (but they take the risk of fraud by opting out from confirmation). So simply stealing a bank card doesn't get you far. And pretending that you did not pay is also more difficult. Is US different? Do banks and clients trust each other in US and do not require OTP?
- BenjiWiebe 4mo agoYep. If I take someone's credit card, I can use it all I want, until either 1) they notice and cancel the card, or 2) I trip the fraud protection with unusual spending patterns.
- kasey_junk 4mo agoChip & pin doesn’t help with chargebacks or merchant fraud which is what costs credit card processors and issuers in adult content.
- VerifiedReports 4mo agoI'm talking about day-to-day transactions, not specifically adult content.