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Discussions Rules and Guidelines
27 
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Visa, along with Mastercard, has reportedly impacted platforms like SubscribeStar, leading to restrictions and challenges in accepting payments, especially for creators with adult or controversial content. Here's a summary of the situation: Pressure on Platforms: There have been reports of credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard pressuring platforms like Patreon, and subsequently SubscribeStar, to ban or restrict users for violating their terms of service, particularly concerning content deemed "objectionable". This has resulted in account closures and difficulties for creators, especially those involved in adult content. Alternative Payment Options: Some creators and users, facing these restrictions, have sought alternative payment methods to support creators on SubscribeStar or other similar platforms, including direct bank transfers, virtual cards, or other options not linked to major credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard. Concerns about Censorship: Critics of Visa's actions and similar moves by other payment processors argue that these actions constitute a form of censorship. They express concern about the growing influence of these companies in dictating what content is acceptable online. Difficulty Getting Payments: Some users have also reported difficulties in getting payments to SubscribeStar through banks or other methods that are linked to Visa and Mastercard, notes the Steam Community. Japanese Retailers Affected: Visa and Mastercard have also refused to work with some Japanese doujinshi retailers due to adult content, reports Otaku USA Magazine.
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It is a significant concern that Visa and Mastercard's policies, which impact the ability of platforms and creators to accept payments, are being influenced by government actions or could serve as a means for the government to indirectly restrict speech. Here's why these concerns exist: Pressure on Platforms: There have been instances where governments or government officials have pressured payment processors or platforms to take action against certain content, particularly in the realm of adult content or controversial topics. These pressures can range from overt threats of legal action or regulation to more subtle "jawboning" or expressing concerns about the content. Vague Policies and Over-Enforcement: Mastercard and Visa's acceptable use policies often contain broad and sometimes vague language about prohibited content, such as "illegal activity" or "brand-damaging transactions". This broadness can lead to over-enforcement by platforms that fear losing access to the payment networks, resulting in the removal of legal content. Indirect Censorship: If platforms are forced to remove legal content or refuse service to creators based on these policies, it can be seen as a form of indirect censorship. The government, unable to directly regulate such speech due to First Amendment protections, might exert pressure on private entities like Visa and Mastercard to achieve the same outcome. Financial Leverage: The near-duopoly of Visa and Mastercard gives them immense power over online payments. As Resistbot argues, this control can be used to pressure platforms into removing content to avoid losing payment processing services. Lack of Transparency: Critics point to the lack of transparency in the decision-making process when platforms are forced to remove content or suspend accounts based on these policies. This makes it difficult to ascertain the extent of government involvement or the real reasons behind the restrictions. While Visa and Mastercard maintain they are simply upholding their terms of service and preventing illegal activity, the debate surrounding the extent of government influence on their content policies continues. The issue boils down to the potential for these powerful private entities to act as gatekeepers of online expression, potentially influenced by external pressures, and thereby limiting access to content that is otherwise legal.
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Mastercard's policies have significantly impacted platforms like Patreon, leading to changes in how adult content is handled and sparking accusations of censorship In 2021, Mastercard introduced new standards for adult content merchants, which require payment processors like Patreon to implement strict measures for creators. These requirements include verifying the age and identity of creators, documenting consent from individuals in the content, and implementing content review and monitoring processes. These policies have faced considerable criticism, particularly from sex workers and LGBTQ+ advocates, who argue they negatively impact marginalized creators. The ACLU and other groups contend that the policies unfairly target adult content sites, create difficult burdens for creators, and represent a form of financial censorship by giving payment processors too much power over content. The result of these policies includes account closures for some creators, changes in platform content moderation, and public calls for scrutiny of Mastercard's actions. Mastercard's policies have compelled platforms like Patreon to adopt stricter measures for adult content, leading to allegations of censorship and concerns about the effects on creators and online expression
Which this collaboration focused on spotlighting and supporting Black excellence and Black women-owned small businesses through various initiatives:
Ironically
Mastercard recently settled a class action lawsuit for $26 million due to allegations of pay discrimination against female, Black, and Hispanic employees. The lawsuit claimed that Mastercard systematically paid these employees less than their male and white counterparts for similar work. Visa has not been named in this specific lawsuit, but has faced other legal challenges related to competition and antitrust issues.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Mastercard Settlement:
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A proposed class action lawsuit, Hayman v. Mastercard, included approximately 7,500 female, Black, and/or Hispanic employees who worked at Mastercard in job levels 4-10.
Allegations:
.
The lawsuit claimed that Mastercard's compensation, promotion, and assignment practices discriminated against these groups, resulting in lower pay for comparable work.
Settlement Terms:
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Mastercard agreed to pay $26 million to settle the lawsuit, which includes back pay, attorney's fees, and damages. The company also agreed to review hiring practices, conduct annual pay equity audits, and hire a psychologist to assess workplace bias.
Visa's Legal Issues:
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While not related to the Mastercard case, Visa has faced separate legal challenges, including a lawsuit from the Department of Justice accusing Visa of monopolizing debit card markets.
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Mastercard sponsors the MMA (2022)
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Visa sponsored James Bond
Pierce Brosnan in a James Bond themed commercial featuring a visa card
(movies has espionage, sex, guns, violence, car chases)
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Beauty and the Beast is a Limited Release pin from the Disney Visa Card Rewards pin series.
(furry, bestiality, kidnapping)
DreamWorks Animation, the creators of Shrek, have partnered with both Visa and Mastercard for promotional and co-branded card programs related to the franchise.
Mastercard: Card.com has teamed with DreamWorks Animation to offer a line of pre-paid Mastercard debit cards featuring Shrek characters.
Visa: DreamWorks Animation partnered with Visa for a promotion related to the release of "Shrek Forever After". As part of this promotion, those who purchased a movie ticket through Fandango.com/visasignature received a second ticket free. In addition, some events and theaters accepting online payments for "Shrek the Musical" tickets list Visa and Mastercard as accepted methods of payment.
(the princess and the frog)
(bestiality)
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Tombraider series (mastercard and visa promote it)
(violence against women) (unrealistic standards of beauty for women which has be an argument among feminist groups for this series in particular)
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Visa is the sponsor for Star Wars related experiences and perks for Disney Visa cardholders
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Mastercard did partner with the Game of Thrones Studio Tour in Northern Ireland (the series it's based off of features, incest, sexualizing minors, cannibalism, noncensensual mutilation, rape, hate speech)
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League of Legends: Mastercard's most prominent gaming sponsorship is with Riot Games, focusing heavily on League of Legends esports (lots of furries)
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Visa’s official response reads: “If a transaction is legal, our policy is to process it. We do not establish moral judgments on legal purchases made by our users.”
"Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so. Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks. Payment processors communicated this with Valve, and we replied by outlining Steam’s policy since 2018 of attempting to distribute games that are legal for distribution. Payment processors rejected this, and specifically cited Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7 and risk to the Mastercard brand."
Visa's CEO, Cietan Kitney, has recently stated that disabling card payments for legal adult content is necessary to protect the company's brand.
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Steam has removed hundreds of games from its platform due to concerns raised by payment processors like Visa and Mastercard. These companies threatened to cut off payment services if certain games were allowed to remain on the platform.
Itch has removed all it's NSFW content.
Mind you this was also an effort by the group collective shout complaining to Steam and Itch, which they did not budge. However, when collective shout and NCOSE complained to Visa and mastercard, then that's when the policy changed, collective shout also bragged about this on their twitter page. Now both these groups are Anti-porn an anti-gaming in general. Proof of this is on their twitter pages alone and their previous campaigns. They have also went after Grand theft auto 5 (even getting some stores to ban it in their own country)
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Now outside of free speech concerns why else should you care
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Former president Barack Obama is a well-known fan of the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Evidence of his fandom includes:
He openly confessed his love for the show in interviews.
He even requested and received early access to episodes before they aired, a perk granted due to his position as President.
He joked about the show at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
He participated in a Buzzfeed video where he attempted to name all the characters who had died on the show.
He even asked HBO's then-CEO Richard Plepler if Jon Snow would return after his season 5 death.
It is extremely important to note that
Game of thrones has taboo themes such as (sexualization of and sex with minors, incest, rape, abuse towards women, cannibilism, animal abuse, and hate speech)
David S. Cohen: The former CIA deputy director made a cameo appearance on the show.
Pablo Iglesias: The Spanish politician, leader of the Podemos party, is a known fan and gifted a "Game of Thrones" box set to King Felipe VI of Spain. He also used the slogan "Winter is Coming" and published a book on political lessons from the show.
Pete Buttigieg: Revealed his appreciation for the series, stating it was one of the common interests that initially connected him to his now-husband. He also called it "the best TV show about politics since The Wire".
Donald Trump used a Game of Thrones meme to declare victory after the Mueller Report investigation concluded.
Shake Shack offered a secret menu that required ordering in Valyrian.
Bud Light released a Super Bowl commercial that featured characters from the show.
Oreo created a limited-edition cookie line with designs based on the show's houses and White Walkers.
Bellagio showcased a themed light show at their fountains.
American Red Cross partnered on the "Bleed for the Throne" blood drive campaign.
AT&T held a sweepstakes to win a replica Iron Throne.
Fender released a line of guitars inspired by the show's houses.
Bob Cabral Wines created an official collection of Game of Thrones-themed wines.
Kool-Aid created limited-edition canisters featuring character imagery.
Uber held a contest that included themed car rides and a chance to sit on the Iron Throne.
Major League Baseball (MLB) partnered to create themed bobbleheads and host Game of Thrones nights at games.
Google launched an ad campaign promoting Chromebooks featuring characters from the show.
Xbox offered a giveaway of custom Game of Thrones consoles.
John Varvatos created a fashion line inspired by the series.
Diageo collaborated on a line of Game of Thrones-themed whiskies.
Danielle Nicole created a line of handbags and accessories.
Mastercard has promoted the Game of Thrones Studio Tour located in Banbridge, Northern Ireland.
Mastercard has offered promotions, including a 30% discount on tickets for Mastercard holders, to encourage visits to the official Game of Thrones Studio Tour.
The Game of Thrones Studio Tour allows visitors to step onto original sets, including the iconic Great Hall at Winterfell, explore authentic costumes, weapons, and props, and discover the secrets behind the making of the global hit series. Mastercard's promotions aim to enhance the experience for Game of Thrones fans and provide them with special benefits.
And yet mastercard and visa are targeting and censoring games and anime that have those themes, by pressuring companies to delete all media that has them (although these are all legal fictional material) Many companies have come forward and accused them of strongarming them to remove content they did not like. Which is very concerning because of their history of monopolistic practices.
This stance was articulated by Cietan Kitney, Head of Product Asia Pacific at Visa, who, during a briefing, stated that while Visa aims to facilitate legal and legitimate purchases, they might deny certain transactions if they deem it necessary to protect their brand. Kitney emphasized that these decisions are complex and involve both global and local policies.
Visa's actions have led to concerns about potential censorship and the influence of international credit card companies on the content distribution and creative freedom in other countries. Some individuals have accused Visa and other payment processors like Mastercard of targeting platforms for self-published works and fan art.
While Visa has not explicitly detailed the specific global and local policies governing these decisions, their actions reflect a proactive approach to protecting their brand reputation, even when it involves impacting the availability of certain types of content within a specific market.
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It’s been a long time coming but VISA Japan has finally come under scrutiny from the Japan Fair Trade Commission for breaking Japan’s anti-monopoly act, telling VISA to reform their business practices in the country. The final straw it seems was VISA Japan’s recent selective blocking of online sales of anime and manga content to ‘protect our brand’. People don’t want card companies telling them how to spend their own money, but there’s a lot more to the story. How bad was it? A recent Reddit post has an interesting list of VISA’s purportedly bad behavior (like all things Reddit, be careful):
Old-ish(?) news, but happy it’s finally seeing the light of day.
American payment processors have essentially had Japan under soft economic embargo since 2018. They physically send agents into stores to make sure things aren’t being sold for cash, they blacklist political parties, they pull plugs on anime productions, they issue “performance scores” to politicians, they cut fare processing for subway systems that they say run too many trains, they block transactions from convenience stores that stock pornography or accept Chinese credit cards, they forcibly got the government to “upgrade” payment processor standards to cripple JCB with costs, they’ve mandated contactless points of sale (Suica, etc.) integrate invasive user tracking, they’ve killed the accounts of people buying crypto, they’ve illegally issued free credit to LGBT events, they’ve enforced ESG scores, they’ve sabotaged pro-Palestine protests, they give 5-figure dollar amount gifts to foreigners and criminals, etc, etc. The son of a Visa exec actually moonlights as the head of Osaka Antifa, so I guess whatever his daddy can’t defund he tries to punch in the face.
There have been attempts to legally rein them in, but they were mostly blocked by both the UN and then-ambassador Rahm Emmanuel. Many people have moved to JCB, which is trying to fight back as best they can, but it’s still very much an active issue. If you want to support Japanese companies, please make sure you’re using JCB or directly transferring money to the company’s listed bank account!
Hopefully this Steam thing will invite real actual international action. Japan’s sort of been screaming into the void about this, it feels like.
In America’s recent presidential election VISA blocked political donations to certain groups labeling them ‘hate groups’.
It’s a long complex story with many facets, far beyond my ability to report it. On the Apple Pay Japan side there has been lots of anticompetitive behavior that I have covered over the years. Here are a few important points as I see them.
Killing off FeliCa payment networks in favor of EMV
People discuss payments as if EMV is a global standard that has been around forever. It’s important to know the Mobile FeliCa background. VISA Japan’s biggest and most important banking partner is SMBC, they issue most of VISA and Mastercard in Japan. The Mobile FeliCa Osaifu Keitai platform came together before the EMV contactless spec did. VISA/Mastercard/SMBC/JCB cooperated with Docomo to develop the FeliCa QUICPay (operated by JCB) in 2004 but Docomo quit suddenly to develop the iD payment network that launched in 2005.
Visa shutout of Apple Pay in Japan
Flash forward a decade to October 2016 and the Apple Pay launch in Japan. By this point there was considerable friction between Docomo and SMBC that soon became a behind the scenes feud. First of all VISA Japan never wanted to support Apple Pay because it supported the FeliCa payment networks in Japan and they wanted to kill those in favor of EMV NFC. VISA refused to sign with Apple Pay for Japan thus limiting local issue Apple Pay VISA cards to the point of sale iD and QUICPay networks. No online or in-app Apple Pay for Japan issue VISA cards. This situation went on until May 2021 when VISA finally signed on for Apple Pay Japan. Just in time for the Tokyo Olympics and EMV open loop test rollouts on private rail.
Shutout of inbound VISA use for Apple Pay Suica/PASMO/ICOCA to promote EMV open loop payments
On August 5, 2022 the VISA Japan payment network merchant acquirer suddenly started blocking non-Japan issue VISA card use for Wallet in-app use with Suica, PASMO and ICOCA along with some online merchants. Users could not longer add money to those cards. The issue dragged on until iOS 17.2 update lifted the block for Apple Pay Suica, but not for PASMO or ICOCA. As of 2025-07-23, PASMO is still non-JP VISA blocked. The reasons for the block was never explained or ever acknowledged but Junya Suzuki reported his sources said, ‘undefined security risks’, which could be anything.
My own take is these VISA maneuvers had two goals: (1) promote EMV open loop systems at the expense of mobile transit card use and, (2) get more iPhone Apple Pay user data with Enhanced Fraud Prevention. Even Japanese issue card users started complaining of sudden daily Mobile Suica recharge limits of ¥2,000 to ¥3,000.
The simple gist of it all is that VISA (EMV payment network) and SMBC (stera payment platform provider) have worked to reduce NFC payment competition, i.e. kill FeliCa based payment networks in favor of EMV. A lot of people in Japanese IT media argue this as a good thing. I do not. To me strong competition is a healthier market. In addition to the EMV payment pipeline, Japan should keep the FeliCa payment pipeline. Because getting rid of it means there is no alternative to EMVCo which encompasses a ecosystem of everything from smartphone and reader NFC chips, to software, to device certification, to payment transaction pipelines and backbones (CAFIS, etc.).
The end result of VISA and SMBC maneuvers has been the Japanese mobile carriers Rakuten, SoftBank, Docomo, KDDI au pushing back with QR Code payment services like dBarai, PayPay, auPay, Rakuten Pay and so on. Locking in their own cards on the recharge backend to reduce EMV and middle man bank hanky panky as much as possible (and recoup some of the transaction fees too). Anyone who can do so has their XX Pay and reward point scheme by now. Meanwhile online merchants who don’t have means are at the mercy of VISA shutting them out if they don’t like the content.
It will take time to see what comes out of the Japan Fair Trade Commission’s action and VISA Japan’s compliance. The best Japanese IT reporter covering this beat is Junya Suzuki. He had this to say today:
I checked with the Fair Trade Commission regarding this matter. Currently, Visa basically requires authorization for all transactions processed through its brand network (VisaNet), but the condition for obtaining a preferential fee rate is that transactions must go through VisaNet, which is the issue.
For now, the two key points are: “Visa is not ‘in violation’ of antitrust laws in this case,” and “When the Fair Trade Commission began its investigation, Visa proactively submitted an improvement proposal (commitment plan).” This suggests that Visa was aware of the high likelihood of being found in violation.
(Junya Suzuki 2025-07-23 JST)
Nobody is going to read a massive, copy-pasted wall of text from some article.
And spamming it across multiple threads is a good way to get banned, I wouldn't recommend continuing that.
Having allusions to rape for narrative reasons is a far cry from putting in a game for the sole purpose of sexual gratification. It’s not the same kind of content at all if you actually understand the actuality of what’s going on.