If you've sputtered the word "feminist" in reply to this you're a fool taking the bait. They want you to be angry at small social activist organizations instead of the trillion-dollar-a-year banking monolith. You should not be angry that a nameless collective of women from Australia are going after violent pornography. You should be angry that a nameless collective of bankers have the ability to prevent American consumers from buying from American stores.
Payment processors are deputized by the Federal Government and required to enforce US Federal Law. The United States Code has on the books laws against obscenity and lolicon. You can say that those things are unenforceable in court, despite existing on the books, but
private companies are not the court. Therefore, the financial services will enforce US Federal Law
as it is written and because their risk assessment strategies are trade secrets, they are under no obligation to even tell you why they take these actions. They are obligated to do due diligence in preventing criminal actions, they are not obligated to provide (and are indeed protected from civil action arising from denying) you service.
This started with the PATRIOT Act. Title III of the PATRIOT Act was codified as permanent federal law.
- 31 U.S.C. (Money and Finance): Enhancing reporting requirements, prohibitions on correspondent accounts with shell banks, and penalties for money laundering (e.g., §§ 5311, 5318, 5321–5332).
- 18 U.S.C. (Crimes and Criminal Procedure): Strengthening forfeiture and jurisdictional provisions related to financial crimes.
- Other scattered sections, such as 22 U.S.C. for international financial policy and 50 U.S.C. for national security-related measures.
Below are examples of laws that financial services are enforcing on behalf of the government.
- 18 U.S.C. § 1461 (Mailing obscene or crime-inciting matter): Prohibits using the U.S. mail to distribute obscene materials, including those depicting sexual violence, rape, or incest if deemed obscene.
- 18 U.S.C. § 1462 (Importation or transportation of obscene matters): Criminalizes transporting obscene materials via common carrier or other means in interstate or foreign commerce, covering violent or obscene pornography.
- 18 U.S.C. § 1465 (Production and transportation of obscene matters for sale or distribution): Bans producing obscene materials with intent to transport or distribute them in interstate commerce, applicable to violent or thematically obscene content like rape depictions.
- 18 U.S.C. § 1470 (Transfer of obscene material to minors): Prohibits transferring obscene matter (e.g., violent pornography) to individuals under 16 using any facility of interstate commerce.
And then there are various state laws requiring ID to buy pornography. Did you enter an ID to buy pornography on Steam? They might be running afoul of state criminal laws as well. Remember when Texas sued Netflix over Cuties?
Financial services should be
required to do business with all US entities and they should even be insulated from the consequences of accidentally providing financial services for crimes unless there is gross negligence or deliberate facilitation.
Petitions and crying on the Internet will not fix this. We need the Congress to pass a bill.
