Payment processors' bar on Japanese adult content endangers democracy (2024)

Democracy, Sovereignty, and Payment Power

• Some argue centralized, surveillance-friendly payment networks that can “debank” people for disfavored but legal activities are inherently anti-democratic, since voters never chose this regime.
• Others counter that it’s overstated: processors are choosing what they will facilitate, not setting binding “country-wide policy.”
• The Japan case (e.g. Manga Library Z losing all payment contracts under foreign pressure) is cited as foreign corporations effectively bypassing Japanese democratic processes; skeptics reply that Japan has domestic payment options and could choose to use them.

Morality vs Risk: Why Processors Shun Adult Content

• One side sees this as moral crusading or capitulation to small but loud activist groups targeting platforms and their payment partners.
• Another insists it’s mainly economics: adult content has high chargeback/fraud rates, bad optics, and thus higher risk; some industries use “high-risk” processors or alternate methods (crypto, niche providers).
• There’s disagreement over how willing major card brands are to work with porn; some say they happily process it, others cite real restrictions on platforms like Pornhub and bans by mainstream PSPs.

Global Attitudes to Adult Content

• Several comments stress that many democracies (e.g. India, Russia, Ukraine, Australia) restrict or criminalize porn, often for non-religious reasons; the Western laissez-faire model is framed as the exception, not the norm.
• Japan is described as officially censored yet practically saturated with adult media; others note recent laws and ratings decisions as evidence of tightening control.

Crypto and Alternative Rails

• Crypto advocates present Bitcoin/Monero/self-hosted processors as the “cure” for centralized financial censorship and a practical workaround for adult content.
• Critics highlight huge energy use, poor UX, volatility, regulatory KYC, fraud issues, and the fact that many crypto payment processors also ban adult industries. Some call crypto “a cure worse than the disease.”
• Others push for public or neutral rails: instant bank transfers (Bizum, Pix, EU TIPS/IPR, FedNow-type systems) and “payment neutrality” akin to net neutrality, though many doubt legislatures will act.

Broader Trend: Control and Neutrality

• A recurring theme is that governments use payment rails as a lever of extra-legal control (against porn, protests, risky speech).
• Some conclude that both payment neutrality laws and widespread crypto adoption face long odds in an era of growing surveillance and centralized control.