Are prudish American censorship ideas increasingly spilling over onto financial service providers? And could, beyond explicit adult content, completely harmless queer material end up in the crosshairs and lose its funding? What about the middle ground, and who gets to decide? In recent days, concerns about outfits like PayPal and other credit-card networks have been debated across social media.
What sparked the discussion is a report that Stripe, the American-Irish payments platform that mostly provides payment gateways for online businesses, allegedly told several people that it would stop processing transactions related to queer content. The claim appeared in a Bluesky thread by adult creator Dieselbrain, where other users also chimed in, saying the support had indicated Stripe was blocking the sale of “non-explicit, legal, non-adult LGBT content.”
The journalist Mady Castigan released a transcription of a call with Stripe’s support, suggesting that such content had not been accepted for a month. After internal review, the support retracted: the ban would apply only if the content depicted abuse or exploitation.
Company apologizes
In statements to the BBC and PinkNews, a Stripe spokesperson said the remarks spread by the support team were “completely false”: “Stripe does not ban the sale of LGBTQ+-related content or goods. We are reviewing this and will ensure that future inquiries are answered correctly.”
The BBC notes that the company, which has received support from Elon Musk in various circles, has long sought to dissociate itself from adult content. Its policy, the BBC explains, explicitly bans use of the service for adult content or services—such as prostitution, sex chats, or “pornography and other adult-audience content (including literature, images and other media) that depict nudity or explicit sexual acts.”
Payment processors and adult content
Those policies can, of course, become a problem in their own right: if all payment processors refuse to handle payments for online erotica or pornography on platforms like OnlyFans, operations could become untenable. In 2020, Visa and Mastercard severed ties with PornHub after media reports accused the site of not doing enough to combat child abuse (PornHub denied those claims). On other platforms like Patreon, where creators offer comics and other content, payment providers might impose strict rules that chill legitimate activity as well.
That is part of what sparked the Stripe debate: this particular provider, along with credit-card networks, was said to have pushed online gaming platforms Steam and itch.io in July to remove or severely restrict adult-focused games. Steam updated its terms to state developers should not publish content that might violate the rules and standards set by Steam’s payment processors, the associated card networks, banks, or internet service providers. Ambiguity about what counts as “adult” or “exploitative” content can lead to arbitrary self-censorship, a concern that circulated across social networks. Some users warned that queer topics could be categorized as adult content and censored as a result.
