"Stripe did not respond to multiple requests for comment and detailed questions sent via email. When I reached Stripe support via Twitter direct message, the account asked me to confirm which email I had used to contact the company. When I gave my email address, the account stopped responding to questions despite multiple attempts."
This sounds an awful lot like they're aware and intentionally feigning ignorance.
The entire payment industriy knows why people use those payment processors, and it's not only because the #USA is so dysfunctional it doesn't even have a national wire transfer system to this day that comes even close to pre-#SEPA#Germany, but because they don't want to admit that they literally are profiteerig from it even if they constantly deny this fact. https://mstdn.social/@kkarhan/111073470239092755
So a little side note here: I'm generally prohibited from using Stripe for Unobvious Technology, even though the business models I was looking at were simple SaaS based billing.
At the same time though (and this was between 2017 and 2021), both OnlyFans and Sexpanther had been using Stripe for some amount of payments or payouts.
Their policy was basically "don't ask don't tell", which is a really shitty way to apply your AUP.
@thisismissem There really should be a payment provider regulation that would make it impossible for them to deny service. Ideally, that would make it illegal for them to even check what the payments are for, but I can't see that last one happening.
@thisismissem With most AUPs I find there's no real monitoring or enforcement, especially with large scale services. Like my home Internet has a litany of limitations the provider cannot and does not monitor but I'm sure will trot out if an actual issue occurs.
Unfortunately I think "don't ask don't tell" is pretty standard for AUPs. Unless it generates a problem they don't care.
@ocdtrekkie this sort of enforcement makes AUPs basically a means to harm services you don't like, and greatly impacts parts of society that are typically marginalised.
AUPs are rules, and rules are only good if you enforce them equally and evenly, and fairly.
@thisismissem AUPs do their job (as far as the company is concerned) just by existing. Stripe doesn't care what your payments are for, they just don't want to get in trouble with the banks. So throw an AUP on it, problem solved, if a bank gets upset about a Stripe customer "oh, they broke our AUP, we'll shut them out".
I don't think they (or most businesses, really) care about fairness, they care about money and liability.
@thisismissem Do they like... check that? Like they directly prohibit pornography, prostitution, etc. but I didn't see any terms that should prohibit a business which sells services for those who do sell those things.
I imagine the examples above drew the line as "we provide this technology, irrespective of the fact that you can also use it to create adult content". I feel like your company should be able to argue that too.
Like the entire #US#payment industry is full of hypocrisy:
Everyone there from the main Payment networks down to the smallest issuer and payment processor claim that gabling, sexwork, drugs and weapons violate their ToS but they all know that if customers can't pay at a full-auto range, a weed dispensary, casino hotel or sexworkers with their card, their revenue would go near zero and they'd all get fired within a week.
@thisismissem@eff also I feel like revenge porn probably isn't free speech under any definition (definitely afoul of wiretap laws in many jurisdictions at least) but the point is that @eff is nazi garbage
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