gumroad banning NSFW + my itchio
2 months ago
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Gumroad is banning NSFW so since i am getting deplatformed and rug-pulled by puritans yet again I'd appreciate support on Itch.io from now on.
there's even a spring sale atm:
https://itch.io/s/118944/smoosh-spring-2024
buying my art packs are one of the best ways to support the creation of my art aside from patreon. Thanks so much..
At some point I'll be clearing my FA galleries out to make way for work that reflects my improvements and the packs will be one of the only ways to get my old backlogs.
speaking of patreon, they also made some shitty changes lately that delists adult creators from discovery. So consider supporting me on Substar: https://subscribestar.adult/smooshkin
there's even a spring sale atm:
https://itch.io/s/118944/smoosh-spring-2024
buying my art packs are one of the best ways to support the creation of my art aside from patreon. Thanks so much..
At some point I'll be clearing my FA galleries out to make way for work that reflects my improvements and the packs will be one of the only ways to get my old backlogs.
speaking of patreon, they also made some shitty changes lately that delists adult creators from discovery. So consider supporting me on Substar: https://subscribestar.adult/smooshkin
The worse part of it to me is it might just be one person with influence, but isn't a gumroad employee, who is responsible. =_=
The issue is multi-faceted. First there's the the fact NSFW content tends to have an absurdly high rate of chargebacks. That alone was why PayPal changed their policy long ago on that. However, they are wishy-washy at enforcing it but as some furry artists know once they are aware you are a porn artist your PayPal account is pretty much gone at that point for TOS violations.
In 2018 law was passed to hold platforms accountable for sex crimes. It's why Craigslist shut down their personals section since they could be held liable if their site is used by a rapist to search for victims. The same is true for payment processors and in part why when mere accusations regarding PornHub intentionally hosting CP and rape vids PayPal, Stripe, MasterCard and Visa all prohibit transactions on there now and the only method of payment now is direct bank transfer and crypto.
Couple that with the fact people have been pushing real life standards in art such as "Aging up" characters or it be treated like child pornography. Then there's the bestiality angle, not an uncommon theme in furry art. So from a political standpoint it's starting to be treated akin to real life porn.
Technically speaking Patreon, Itch.IO as well as Subscribestar are all in violation of PayPal and Stripe's polices and with the guy at Gumroad I've been dealing with the issue is these payment processors are now starting to enforce that TOS with Stripe having only recently changed theirs to now exclude fictional pornography/NSFW art.
The anti-porn lobby isn't the largest factor here by a longshot. It's because we've made it law that anyone remotely involved in sex crimes can now be charged so they're noping out of it now. However, also keeping in mind these are multi-national corporations as well and in countries where NSFW is straight up banned. Porn is banned in 34 countries, most of them being Muslim nations but the most significant one is China.
Should tell you all you need to know about why they are bending the knee because it does put them at risk of being booted out of the massive Chinese market similar to what Blizzard did regarding free speech during the Free Hong Kong movement.
So at the end of the day it's a combination of legal and economic reasons. They were willing to take the economic risk for some time but there's no need for them to do that when they could be on the hook for sex crimes and now there's people claiming that fictional porn has been used to groom them for sexual abuse so this in part why the ban is starting to creep on into the fantasy realm.
Unless our laws change it'll wind up being like the PornHub situation where the only way to pay will be direct bank transfers or crypto and given content creators tend to be vehemently against crypto it's probably why Gumroad hasn't provided that as an alternative for NSFW creators. Honestly if I were a payment processor I'd ban it as well. It's not worth the liability created in recent years.
I'd give examples of what I'm talking about, but I'd be here all day... rambling on about random things that are unrelated. ^^;
I understand that not just one thing is to blame for everything, that international politics are complicated, not every country agree with every other... I'd just be a happier kitsune if there wasn't any religion to meddle in humanity's values and ideals is all I want to see. 😂
I'm sorry that you've had negative experiences with religion and I don't claim to understand or know what you've gone through, but perhaps you'd be open to a different perspective?
It's much more nuanced than this. I believe people use religion, ideology, or any other excuse to harm one another regardless of what the core nature of that belief is. Religion has a net-positive for people looking to delve deeper into spirituality and have a course towards personal responsibility and doing good deeds. What you're talking about are bad actors who understand they can gain power out of any faith, religious or not.
Even if you believe religion is a problem, one of humanity's top values should be allowing people their own autonomy and freedom to belief, yes?
I don't think this should get in the way of your happiness, it's yours to find. 🧡
I really wish we could return to some sense of sanity by not putting fictionalized porn in the same category as people people filming themselves.
But I think it's too late to put that back in the box.
Also, on the topic of subscribe star, they are a black box when it comes to their operations. Me finding out about Dropp was a very recent thing. Wouldn't have know about it if I didn't find some obscure article critical of Subscribe Star.
Was that SESTA/FOSTA? Anyway, thanks for your post, interesting stuff.
best of luck to you with this payment bs, your art is worth the money & I'll be grabbing some packs for sure 🫡
also thank you!!