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Comment by Dalewyn

1 year ago

Also happening in Japan. Quite a number of big-name vendors like DMM, DLsite, and others are getting heavy pressure from Visa and Mastercard to censor certain merchandise for no justifiable reason (as in no legal basis) and in some cases have been blacklisted outright.

The Japanese response, and this is after placating the first round of censor demands, has been to reverse-blacklist Visa and Mastercard because Japan realized that giving an inch only means they will then demand a mile, then a league, and so on.

28 comments

Dalewyn

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diptera911  1 year ago

I feel like you are omitting the content that visa and mastercard find particularly objectionable that is commonplace in japan but not elsewhere.

  • xethos  1 year ago

    This reads like an American, once again, deciding to enforce American cultural norms on other nations

    I'm not defending or condemning any of the artwork in question, just pointing out that American corporations have been forcing through their own cultural norms for decades, even in countries where that may not always be welcome

    In turn, this makes American corporations the arbiters of what is de facto legal, despite not being the ones elected to write the laws

  • Shank  1 year ago

    > I feel like you are omitting the content that visa and mastercard find particularly objectionable that is commonplace in japan but not elsewhere.

    At this point, I would argue that the reasoning isn't even cohesive or unified. Some sites lose all processors (e.g., Amex bails too) whereas others lose only Visa and MasterCard, and the distinctions aren't made clear to end users.

    Sure, DMM and DLSite end up offering a large variety of pornography, but it's not just that -- Niconico Douga's premium subscription service was also blacklisted, despite the fact that it's basically just YouTube Premium for Japanese livestreamers (i.e., not pornography).

    A lot of people argue that the reason is specific genres of pornography, but the practical reality is that it can be basically any type of content of reason. Stripe considers pornography an industry that's too-hot-to-touch, for example, despite the fact that some processors do work with pornography, and end up charging much higher processor fees for the hassle. A lot of user-generated content, which is wildly uncontrolled, combined with a relatively high risk of refunds, can lead to this type of action without necessarily transgressing a general rule like "this specific variety of pornography is bad".

  • lmm  1 year ago

    Omitting that tends to result in more productive discussions. Most people are much more principled when discussing in the abstract than when it comes to something that they have been two minutes' hating for their whole lives.

  • Dalewyn  1 year ago

    Your feelings as a non-Japanese have absolutely no bearing on what flies in Japan.

    Whether the content concerned is tentacle hentai, or goth lolis, or genderbent King Arthur and Leonardo Da Vinci, or whatever else, that stuff is legal under Japanese law and Visa/MC are violating Japanese rights ordering Japanese creators and merchants to censor them. Visa/MC are quite literally engaging in foreign interference and subversion of democracy and Japan's very culture.

    • habinero  1 year ago

      That's a, uh, rather overheated statement and ironically, a very Western point of view. Japan is one of the richest nations in the world, they can (and do) run their own payments systems.

      Also, it's risible to call that stuff Japan's "very culture". It's not. Otaku culture is fringe there, too. Japan is not anime.

      Also, there are plenty of legal things that are (rightly) publicly shamed and ostracized.

      For example, I don't want white supremacists to go to jail for what they say, but I want their lives to be as annoying and lonely as possible.

      9 replies →

throwaway2037  1 year ago

Classic HN bullshit:

    > censor certain merchandise

Zero evidence provided. Zero examples provided.