News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by bcheung on Thursday November 14, 2019 @06:54PM (#21540905)
I've had several friends in the adult industry have their checking accounts closed at a several major banks as well. Traditional banking should definitely not be discriminating against fully legal activities.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by geomark on Thursday November 14, 2019 @07:03PM (#21540968)
This is the thing I find very disturbing. That an industry as highly regulated and essential to every day life as banking can pick and choose based on management's moral choices.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by short_sells_poo on Thursday November 14, 2019 @07:08PM (#21541006)
It's not a moral choice. It's a case of the business is not worth the hassle. KYC rules mean the bank is on the hook if they are found to harbor ill gotten gains and the sex industry had a some troubles in the past, while not producing enough volume on an individual level to make it worthwhile for a bank to overlook things.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by derangedHorse on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:34PM (#21541766)
That just seems like profiling at that point, since they’re basically rejecting service to an individual just because of their profession. Sure they might say that there may be a higher probability of a someone in the adult industry being involved in illegal activities, but is it fair to outright deny service on such a wide scale?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by wincy on Thursday November 14, 2019 @11:02PM (#21542104)
Profiling isn't illegal unless it's profiling against a protected class, right? It's like how I can't get cheap life insurance because I took antidepressants like seven years ago during a rough patch in my life.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by em-bee on Thursday November 14, 2019 @11:55PM (#21542285)
profiling is illegal when the service is necessary to live. in germany for example, it is illegal to deny someone access to things like a phone line, electricity or water. (that is, even if you don't pay your bills, they are not allowed to turn of your service. instead, if they want the money, they have to sue you)

i believe at this point, access to a bank account is also included in this. as things progress, more things will be added to the list. soon (if not already) internet access will be included.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by noobermin on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:32AM (#21542999)
The cop out for "protected classes" is one of the serious failures of the New Left in the US and past generation progressive attempts to wrangle with social issues. It's one of the reasons you have things like clamoring for representation in small dwindling influential places (the meme is "more trans women drone pilots") whilst ignoring systemic issues like how Flint, Michigan still doesn't have drinking water.

I've made this argument before and made Americans (obviously) mad, but this cop out of protected classes allows you to actually discriminate against said classes, you just have to prove there is no malice in your heart, more or less. That is, you did not because they are black or not men, but because of the sanctioned reasons, then it's okay.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by raxxorrax on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:46AM (#21543315)
Definitely a gigantic failure. Why not offer protection for everyone and treat them the same? Praise your literacy all you want, doesn't matter if the performance and strategies of political representatives are abysmal. And the concept of treating people equally seems to be beyond comprehension.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Dylan16807 on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:15AM (#21543456)
> Why not offer protection for everyone

That is how protected classes are defined. Everyone is in multiple protected classes.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by magduf on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:50PM (#21546959)
Huh? How so? I'm pretty sure I'm not in any.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Dylan16807 on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:59PM (#21547056)
All sexes are protected classes. All races are protected classes. All national origins are protected classes. etc.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by magduf on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:15PM (#21547226)
Except when you're in the majority, being white and male and a US citizen (in the US) isn't something you ever get discriminated against for. So this "protection" you talk about is pretty useless; if someone wants to discriminate against someone like me, they find some other convenient factor that isn't protected.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Dylan16807 on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:27PM (#21547349)
They're also likely to do that if you're in the minority.

The problem is the effectiveness of the rules, not that they don't cover everyone.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by brewmarche on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:20AM (#21543198)
German electricity and phone companies can definitely cut you off for not paying. Don't know about water, but I imagine it's similar.

What they can't do is deny you a contract in the first place. (Kontrahierungszwang – obligation to contract, concerns the local water company, the biggest local electricity provider and Deutsche Telekom)

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by em-bee on Friday November 15, 2019 @09:57AM (#21545276)
i seem to remember a lawsuit some years ago that made cutting off services less straightforward, but you make a good point, the key is that they can't deny you a contract
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by bryanrasmussen on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:06AM (#21542893)
so I think what you mean is that profiling is immoral if the service is necessary to live, and in Germany (and other progressive parts of the EU) it is also illegal.

I'm pretty sure these banks doing the profiling were in the U.S

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by kortilla on Thursday November 14, 2019 @11:59PM (#21542299)
That’s not related to profiling.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by novalis78 on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:29AM (#21543784)
The bank secrecy act forces you to profile. That’s why Caitlin Long repeatedly pointed out [1] how it is most likely an unconstitutional law and needs to get challenged in court. But it creates a moat around banking and therefore has not been seriously challenged.

[1] https://youtu.be/LQX0trzomxg

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by hedvig on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:19PM (#21541945)
>found to harbor ill gotten gains

Ah yeah like they were on the hook for laundering Mexican drug cartel money?

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by short_sells_poo on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:36AM (#21543270)
If you actually read my post, I do imply that when it is worth it, the banks will overlook things, but an individual sex worker's business is not worth the risk (probably, I'm not a banker). They'll help you launder $100 million, but not $10000.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by CaptainZapp on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:24AM (#21543768)
They'll help you launder $100 million, but not $10000.

Actually, no; they won't.

That is unless you find a crooked banker (probably a number of them), which is willing to help.

While it's a nice illusion that a bank will do anything for money and this may have been the case 30 years ago this has massively changed.

The reputational risk and the risk of criminal prosecution, including loss of the banking license in critical markets, is much too big as that a reputable bank would willingly engage in such shenanigans nowadays.

That's not saying that it doesn't happen (see recent examples), but if it happens it's virtually always under circumvention of risk management and compliance departments at a bank.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by short_sells_poo on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:40AM (#21543824)
That's just mincing words. Fine, so it won't be a bank that helps you launder $100 million, but an employee of the bank. Ultimately, it is a human that makes the decision, not some abstract entity. I thought it would be obvious (and won't require the addressing of every irrelevant technicality) that banks don't provide money laundering services in their catalog, but above a certain sum, you can just shop around until you find willing individuals. Happy now?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ohyes on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:40AM (#21542515)
Or the human trafficking?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by lmm on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:37AM (#21542778)
Umm yes they were, even if they'd done everything right. Look at the HSBC case and tell me the bank did anything nefarious or even negligent. Nope, governments hit them both ways.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by seanhunter on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:59AM (#21542872)
HSBC admitted negligence. The cartels liked working with HSBC so much they even had secure money boxes made that were specifically designed to fit through the hole in HSBC branch teller windows.

There are tons of references online, but these are some:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-12-12/hsbc-mexi...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jul/17/hsbc-execut...

https://www.foxnews.com/world/hsbc-knowingly-helped-mexican-...

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by lmm on Saturday November 16, 2019 @02:26PM (#21554412)
First link is paywalled.

Second link: they kowtowed to Congress because it would be worse if they hadn't. Look at what they actually did: they complied with the law and advised their clients on how to comply with the law. That's their job.

Third link appears to be all about allegations in a lawsuit rather than anything that was proven.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by LanceH on Thursday November 14, 2019 @11:09PM (#21542140)
Wouldn't it be better to have them in the regular financial systems subject to the "know your customer" laws, so the money and customer can be more easily tracked?

If it's about all sorts of illegal activities, shouldn't law enforcement use these things as a resource, rather than driving it underground?

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by NullPrefix on Thursday November 14, 2019 @11:28PM (#21542207)
It is not law enforcement that is driving them underground. That is private corporations, who decide to rather not know those customers.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by um_ya on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:12AM (#21542651)
It's been happening on social media sites too, so it's not just isolated to banking. It seems to be a political trend to censor non-politically correct things.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by geomark on Friday November 15, 2019 @07:12AM (#21544192)
I suppose that is it, that if the volume isn't there then even the smallest risk is too much for the bank to bother with. So they just terminate.

In a previous life I administered websites for a number of different businesses. One was a dating site that opened a small business account at a bank and then a couple weeks later the bank abruptly terminated their account, stating that they were not equipped to service "entertainment" business accounts. I guess their real reason was they considered there to be some risk that there would be soliciting going on and it wasn't worth the bother for the bank. The bank was very brash about it, stating that they can close an account at anytime for any reason.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by StreamBright on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:33AM (#21543003)
Are you implying that you need to punish an entire industry because of the wrongdoings of some companies?

I guess we should close all the bankers accounts because of Lehman Brothers. Politicians also.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ocdtrekkie on Thursday November 14, 2019 @08:08PM (#21541351)
Not just in the past. There's a current case going on about a major channel that Pornhub used to feature about performers being allegedly both lied to about where the footage would be available and raped.

Very possibly what spurred PayPal to make this change.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by tux1968 on Thursday November 14, 2019 @08:17PM (#21541396)
That sounds like something that should be handled by law enforcement, not your bank.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by fnord123 on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:42PM (#21542035)
It's a civil law suit against Girls Do Porn.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/she-was-18-and-tricked-into-do...

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by belltaco on Thursday November 14, 2019 @08:58PM (#21541602)
Sesta/Fosta potentially make Pornhub/Paypal liable.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jkaplowitz on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:56PM (#21541859)
Pornhub is Canadian, not American (their HQ is Montreal). Of course PayPal is American and Pornhub has plenty of dealings with the US, so your point stands.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by dragonwriter on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:24PM (#21541966)
> Pornhub is Canadian, not American (their HQ is Montreal).

That doesn't necessarily make them, or their principals, immune to US civil or criminal sanctions.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jkaplowitz on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:43PM (#21548059)
I know, I said as much in my last sentence. I just meant it was less impactful on them than it is on PayPal. There is still some impact of course.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by A4ET8a8uTh0 on Thursday November 14, 2019 @11:14PM (#21542156)
And, believe it or not, it is. Patriot Act helpfully provides mechanism for various LEOs to send requests to all FI in US to search for accounts they indicate. Add to that BSA and various KYC requirements that ends up sending data about suspicious customers to FinCEN and you have an easy way to identify undesirables.

And the list grows longer every day.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by james_s_tayler on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:05PM (#21541639)
Banks form an important part of it as KYC is designed to cut down on Money Laundering. Globally KYC/AML rules have gotten much stricter in recent years. If criminals can't access their money it ought to curb some of the incentives.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by CryptoPunk on Thursday November 14, 2019 @11:30PM (#21542216)
It can of course curb illegal activity, as all surveillance laws tend to do, but at enormous cost to privacy, the ability to escape unjust laws, and the ability of persecuted minorities to protect themselves from tyrannical majorities.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by oneplane on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:37PM (#21542008)
That idea behind the rules mostly just annoys legitimate users and only curbs an insignificant amount of criminal activity because alternatives exist (and have always existed). It's somewhat like piracy warnings on digital media; piracy will ignore it but people that consume the content legally still have to sit through the nonsense.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by magduf on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:01PM (#21547082)
>It's somewhat like piracy warnings on digital media; [pirates] will ignore it but people that consume the content legally still have to sit through the nonsense.

Not quite correct: the pirates actually have or enjoy a superior product; they don't have to "ignore" anything. The legal product has annoying anti-piracy warnings that legal purchasers are forced to sit through, while the pirated versions don't have these warnings at all, so the people who use these versions enjoy a better viewing experience.

On top of that, the format is superior. Legal viewers are restricted to DVDs (very low quality), Blu-Rays (high-quality, but inconvenient and bulky physical format), or streaming (varying quality, subject to problems due to transmission path), while pirates get to have a simple digital file on their computer which is whatever quality they want (i.e. they can choose to download a lower or higher-resolution/bitrate version) which is now local so it can't be suddenly restricted by studio executives who want to make it exclusively available on their streaming service, and it won't be unavailable because your internet connection is slow or down.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jorgesborges on Thursday November 14, 2019 @08:21PM (#21541421)
I understand from a corporate perspective the need to step away from potential scandal and public outrage, but this decision only creates more obstacles and misfortune for the people actually being abused.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by arminiusreturns on Thursday November 14, 2019 @07:52PM (#21541257)
UBS and other bankers catering to major drug cartel money though... crickets and maybe a small percentage fine.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by godzillabrennus on Thursday November 14, 2019 @08:08PM (#21541349)
No crickets, they fully embraced it for survival.

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-ba...

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by stuaxo on Thursday November 14, 2019 @08:40PM (#21541513)
HSBC in Mexico.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Spooky23 on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:26PM (#21541972)
UBS and HSBC aren’t US banks.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by x0x0 on Thursday November 14, 2019 @07:53PM (#21541266)
I doubt it's moral choices and more fraud and dispute levels, ie the cost to service a customer.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jeltz on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:11PM (#21541663)
I am not convinced it is just that. PayPal also refuses to do business with online gambling which is an industry with low fraud levels (in the early poker days they were high, but that was a long time ago). Thankfully there are a bunch pf credit card processors who know how good customers online casinos are and most banks are fine too, so that industry is not deplatformed.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by um_ya on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:15AM (#21542671)
I would imagine gambling sites would get a lot of chargebacks. Consider a user that transfers money to the site and loses it all. That user might initiate a chargeback to get their money back.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by sumedh on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:46AM (#21543061)
> PayPal also refuses to do business with online gambling

Not in Australia.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jeffasinger on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:10PM (#21541916)
Most of the online gambling operators in New Jersey take PayPal, though you usually have to use either a bank account linked with ACH or a balance you already have in PayPal.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jeltz on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:39PM (#21542021)
European gambling operators don't. It is pretty much impossible for a European operator to get PayPal (there have been a couple of exceptions).
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ascorbic on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:12AM (#21542655)
The big UK gambling sites all accept PayPal.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by bostik on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:37AM (#21543803)
And I can guarantee they all had to go through a long, painful process with reams of paperwork to get there.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jeffasinger on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:16AM (#21544483)
This is definitely true.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by tenderfault on Thursday November 14, 2019 @11:12PM (#21542149)
what bunch, exactly?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Bombthecat on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:18AM (#21542946)
Forbidden in germany. There is literally a law, which basically says: everyone needs to have and is allowed to have a banking account.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by egeozcan on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:39AM (#21543030)
I'm living in Germany, the bank account of my neighbor in Commerzbank was closed because he wrote "hooker money" in description when sending money to one of his friends. At least that's what we believe because they refused to explain why. He could easily open another account in Volksbank and according to him, when the new account manager asked and learned why his previous account was closed, they had a pretty good laugh.

I used to get "funny" too when sending money through PayPal to friends, never again.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by alias_neo on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:14AM (#21543172)
I've been with my bank for 15+ years. One time I sent a payment of several hundred £s to a friend who's paid my share of a holiday when booking.

In the description I put "fun times". I had a call from my bank asking me to explain the payment the next day. I've never been called before nor since that.

It certainly feels like they're a bit touchy about certain references.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by MisterTea on Friday November 15, 2019 @07:10AM (#21544184)
> In the description I put "fun times".

I recently started using Venmo to pay a few people and the things I have wrote are awful. Recent examples include: "Human organ trafficking" "Lunch and murder for hire", "sack of shrunken heads" and so on. Let them call me.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by cpursley on Friday November 15, 2019 @07:32AM (#21544293)
I put "Crimea" in a venmo transfer to my own wife and they will no longer allow me to transfer funds to her.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by yosito on Saturday November 16, 2019 @05:12PM (#21555293)
I'm American. I went on a trip to Cuba for a free software conference, and someone from the conference borrowed a few Cuban Pesos from me to get some food before going to the airport. Later he sent me USD on Venmo for "Cuban cash transfer" and they threatened to close his account, but he managed to convince them that he was sending me money for lunch at a Cuban restaurant in the US. Ever since then, I'm cautious about descriptions when I Venmo people money.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by pretendscholar on Saturday November 16, 2019 @11:28AM (#21553412)
For some real fun start quoting koranic poetry and start listing random sites in yemen and pakistan.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by maxwell on Friday November 15, 2019 @07:22AM (#21544242)
Get ready for your account to be closed suddenly without warning over the next few years.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Haga on Friday November 15, 2019 @11:36AM (#21546255)
Never forget.. It's not personal. It's just a process who wants to shed potential liability by applying pressure on individuals involved. Wouldn't be necessary if we had banking secrecy.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jstarfish on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:39PM (#21546864)
Vice did a writeup where a reporter did this just to see what happened and it ended with the associated funds effectively seized.

Maybe they've gotten more permissive but don't do this with money you can't afford to lose.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by wyclif on Sunday November 17, 2019 @12:57AM (#21556746)
I'm an American and so I totally get what you're saying and in principle you're absolutely right, but that's not the way I roll anymore.

I want to be as under the radar as I can be when it comes to stuff like this. My attitude is that the bank already knows too much about me, why give them more rope?

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by raxxorrax on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:40AM (#21543286)
At that moment you should have made it clear that it isn't his business at all to disincenitivise future bad behavior. Even as a lazy person I probably would have switched banks.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by nothrabannosir on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:37AM (#21544054)
It is; the UK has very strict KYC laws and any institution handling money is quickly on the hook for certain misdeeds by their customers. They need to show diligence in monitoring that activity.

> You must meet certain day-to-day responsibilities if your business is covered by the Money Laundering Regulations. These include carrying out ‘customer due diligence’ measures to check that your customers are who they say they are, and risk assessing your business.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/money-laundering-regulations-you...

(That entire page, like the rest of gov.uk, is comprehensive and very accessible to read for a layman. If you have any passing interest in the area I recommend giving it a skim.)

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by alias_neo on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:45AM (#21543314)
In hindsight, I probably should have switched banks, but ~~15+ years ago~~ I was young enough that it mattered very little to my sense of principle.

They've otherwise been quite reliable since so jumping ship now would almost be asking for trouble.

Edit: It wasnt 15 years ago this happened, it was perhaps a decade. I'd already been a customer for some time.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by merpnderp on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:31AM (#21544583)
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ksaj on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:46PM (#21549109)
> It certainly feels like they're a bit touchy about certain references.

I'd say they quite overstepped the boundaries. What are fun times to you and the recipient is certainly not their business. Why would they even waste time reading the RE line if they aren't doing your accounting for you at the same time?

There is even a party rental company named Fun Times. Would they interrogate every cheque written to/from them?

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by alias_neo on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:51PM (#21549543)
I'm really not sure. Perhaps it was flagged as unusual and they looked, saw the reference and then questioned it?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by bloogsy on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:00AM (#21543652)
It could also be that they're worried about money laundering, or there's someone a little bit keen behind the scenes.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by pgeorgi on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:57AM (#21543369)
The law in question was established in 2016 and it calls for a special type of bank account ("Basiskonto") to be made available to all[0]. So the story could predate the law or (which is quite likely) the account might be a regular account, not the fallback.

[0] Conditions apply: A bank isn't forced to do business with somebody who defrauded them in the last 3 years, for example. But the decision must be made timely (10 days), it must be explained and there's a well-defined path to legal review. Details at https://www.bafin.de/DE/Verbraucher/Bank/Produkte/Basiskonto...

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by pepesza on Friday November 15, 2019 @09:13AM (#21544903)
Don't give them any info. Write something along the lines of "transfer of money", always. Use separate channel to communicate "why". Every bit of information you give them will be used against you.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by sjoebergco on Friday November 15, 2019 @09:56AM (#21545272)
Traditional banking customers are still just a policy change away from a locked account tho. Hard to avoid with current systems.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by black_puppydog on Friday November 15, 2019 @09:43AM (#21545155)
including suspicious non-disclosure of the actual "why"...
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by pluma on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:43AM (#21543835)
Generally the advice in Germany is not to use "funny" descriptions, but not because the bank might have no sense of humor but because the tax agency might take it literally.

If your friend sends you money "for sexual favors", that might be considered taxable income and you'll find yourself having some explaining to do.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by toyg on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:08AM (#21543936)
Not just tax authorities, but (more importantly) police ones.

The laws around things like sex work or drug consumptions, in most countries, are full of grey areas and willfully-contradictory positions (e.g. one can buy but the other can't sell, etc). So as soon as a transaction is categorised as part of a "problematic" economy, then police can get involved. If your bank lets through "hooker money" unchallenged, the police can eventually accuse the bank of facilitating activities which might be, at some level, criminal.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by pdpi on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:23AM (#21544000)
> willfully-contradictory positions (e.g. one can buy but the other can't sell, etc).

This seems weird, but is actually a perfectly reasonable legal regime that's all about power dynamics and enabling the authorities to approach people. Drug users and prostitutes are in much more vulnerable positions than drug dealers and johns respectively.

If you make selling drugs a crime, but not buying/owning those same drugs, now the police can approach addicts much more easily, and get them help (this is the much-lauded Portuguese model).

The same logic applies in reverse to prostitution: if selling sexual favours is legal, but buying is illegal, prostitutes are enabled to report abusive johns to the police, and authorities can approach them much more easily to try and get them off that life too.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by toyg on Friday November 15, 2019 @10:40AM (#21545692)
This is the rationalisation of a legal kludge that is only necessary to assuage consciences that the state has not become "immoral".

The facts on the ground are that, dissuasion or not, these economies will never go away ("oldest profession", after all). Full legalisation would allow for complete oversight of such murky sectors, which would ensure everyone's safety better than the current arrangements, at all levels. For example, in many countries there is no way for prostitutes to legally ensure their own security, because any sort of professional relationship with a sex-worker is illegal (even if the business itself is not); at that point, whether they have recourse post-abuse or not, is basically irrelevant.

The legal situation around cannabis and prostitution is just a shitshow in most places, driven as it is by outdated sensibilities which have ossified through short-term political calculation. There is no point trying to find in it a logic that is simply not there.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by pdpi on Friday November 15, 2019 @11:19AM (#21546074)
I agree that prostitution should be legalised and regulated to make it safer for everybody involved (because I too don't think it'll ever go away). Cannabis? Probably — I don't know that it's that much worse than tobacco.

Full-on legalisation is not universally desirable, though — there's always heroine, cocaine, crack, meth... — and the asymmetric legality thing is still a very useful tool in those circumstances.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Zak on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:47PM (#21546928)
I would argue, from a pure cost-benefit perspective that full legalization of drugs is desirable unless someone has another credible plan for eliminating the black market without unacceptable consequences (e.g. a police state).
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ClumsyPilot on Saturday November 16, 2019 @07:31PM (#21555821)
What's needed is evidence based approach, where wt draw a line at alcohol and all drugs less lethal/ addictive/ harmful (take your pick) are legalised.

There are some truly horrible substances, but with current approach heroin and weed are sold by the same guy.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by takeda on Sunday November 17, 2019 @01:19AM (#21556789)
The thing is that if it was really a payment for an illegal activity, who actually would write the truth in the description?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by pluma on Sunday November 17, 2019 @08:06PM (#21561166)
Prostitution is legal in Germany but it is regulated and money made from it is taxable income.

Also famously you do have to pay taxes on illegal income, otherwise the income is both illegal and tax fraud.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by anilakar on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:42AM (#21543830)
Banks in EU are forced to monitor their customers' transactions. I think it's one of the ways to comply with anti-laundering and anti-gray market laws.

Last year there was a news article about someone getting a phone call from the bank because the description in a money transfer contained the substring "ISIL".

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jotm on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:56AM (#21543367)
But even paying a hooker would be legal in Germany?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by blkhawk on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:03AM (#21543399)
yes, why wouldn't it be?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jotm on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:06AM (#21543420)
So that couldn't have been the reason for account closure, I meant :)
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by mtrovo on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:27AM (#21543514)
Don’t know if it’s only in Germany but banks here don’t need to give you any reason to close your account. There are some stories of how every time they tweak N26 Risk ML there’s a wave of termination letters to customers that didn’t do anything wrong. A bunch of friends got affected by this a while a go, they didn’t do anything wrong and the bank refused to give any reason at all for the termination.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by salawat on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:20PM (#21546662)
This is actually a consequence of what neural network based ML actually does.

Machine learning is actually a misnomer. A more accurate term is function interpolation.

Let's say I have a training set of 5000 samples.

When I kick off the training process, I'm basically telling the NN run until it simulates a function that yields the desired response in those 5000 cases.

The rub of course, is that programs aren't only defined by what they do (yielding the appropriate response for the the training cases) but also by what they don't do (excessive false positive/negative generation outside the training dataset). Performing correctly on the training, but messing up on more general tasks (the human equivalent being becoming an excellent test taker, but a lousy practitioner) is called overfishing. A more broad subclass of overfishing that van occur would be undesired/discriminatory/illegal optimizations, such as using combinations of protected classes as a significant data point in coming to a determination.

There is no guarantee for any particular training session that you'll arrive at the same weights, or that that set of weights will cover the same set of things that the previous network did. I.e. Your network can make mistakes (just like a person).

The irony in all of this, is you're basically training a machine to simulate a human doing a task in reliability/consistency (admittedly without the constraints of interacting with the world through a human body) with all the volatility between training that just being a human from day to day introduces.

I'm honestly beginning to wonder if the push for machine learning adoption isn't anything more than the market trying to replace people with models that they don't have to pay benefits for, and onto which they can pass blame trivially because, "Of course we didn't make it to discriminate! There's no way we could have known it would do that ahead of time!"

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Crinus on Friday November 15, 2019 @07:14AM (#21544200)
Does closing your account also mean you lose your money or they give it to you somehow?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by r3drock on Saturday November 16, 2019 @09:11PM (#21556137)
They must give it to you.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by petre on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:04AM (#21543137)
The financial industry has no sense of humor.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by noobermin on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:27AM (#21542978)
Which further highlights how many "problems" that tech people in the US have tried to solve (transit->uber, various health care start-ups, etc) are essentially due to the failure of the US state to function properly or even focus on the right thing.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by mola on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:55AM (#21543356)
Yup, it seems US citizens pay crazy amount of hidden tax because of inefficiencies caused by fanatical anti government propaganda. This isn't only about freedom it's about keeping power in certain hands.

Too bad it's being exported everywhere

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by VvR-Ox on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:45AM (#21544091)
+1 for this. When working in Germany I talked to citizens who told me their state is also heading that direction.

More things are denationalized so private companies now have the responsibility but also the revenue (like "Autobahn" or some time ago the post).

When I understand it correctly those where initially financed by public money so it seems like this investment is now being absorbed by the companies overtaking the business.

Accordingly there are strong voices who demand less control of the economy by the government.

I think they had a good system running (look at the numbers) and now they destroy that by adopting the ideas of the US-system.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Arubis on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:45AM (#21544679)
The flippant-yet-accurate description I've heard of this is "socialized losses, privatized profits".
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by hedora on Friday November 15, 2019 @10:37AM (#21545669)
I’ve heard, “public risk, private profits”.

That ends up including things like utilities, but also most of the US automotive industry, banks, etc. (It also requires the listener to have an understanding of expected value, and other basic statistics.)

“socialized losses, private profits” seems to include any government spending that benefits society, such as public ownership and funding of roads, but private shipping companies (and all the industries that rely on them) profiting from their existence.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by merpnderp on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:23AM (#21544529)
Obama was the direct opposite of fantastically anti government and this deplatforming peaked under him.

This isn’t about anti government sentiment, it’s about pro abuse of government sentiment to use the force of law to push your morality on others.

At least unless you weirdly classify Obama as anti government.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by hedora on Friday November 15, 2019 @10:45AM (#21545738)
Read up on corporatism. It describes the overlap of moderate Democratic and moderate Republican ideology pretty well.

It is a shortening of “corporate fascism”, and is the idea that the government exists to protect the economy, which is best done by strengthening existing power structures that power the current economic system.

Therefore the government should defer to corporations whenever possible.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by takeda on Sunday November 17, 2019 @01:51AM (#21556857)
It's also showing up in presidential campaign. Biden is known corporate Democrat. He is still leading in the polls, but losing it. The recent Ukraine revelations also didn't help and looks like Warren is taking over. Out of nowhere 3 new "moderate" candidates appeared, and also Harris got a large donation.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by humanrebar on Friday November 15, 2019 @07:40AM (#21544310)
> ...fanatical anti government propaganda.

Jim Crow, Watergate, Catholic priest abuse scandals, regulatory failure in 2008, too big to fail, gerrymandering, police involved shootings, Hurricane Katrina flooding, Keystone Pipeline leaks, ...

And, yes, it happens in local markets too: taxi medallion systems, overzealous zoning, local corruption, running Amazon out of Queens, and so on.

We could call skepticism fanatical, but that dismisses some pretty substantive history and current events regarding government corruption and incompetence.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by justinclift on Friday November 15, 2019 @09:18AM (#21544948)
Maybe it's time for an update to Hanlon's razor? ;)

  Never attribute to incompetence that which can be adequately explained by corruption.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by hedora on Friday November 15, 2019 @10:49AM (#21545774)
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

-Upton Sinclair

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by justinclift on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:29PM (#21547360)
Yeah, similar. ;)
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by pluma on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:37AM (#21543810)
Just like how most public healthcare proposals in the US while technically raising taxes would end up leaving the individual with a much lower financial burden because of the ridiculous amounts of money Americans pay for healthcare and medication.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by merpnderp on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:25AM (#21544538)
This belief that the US is capable of implementing a socialized system in an affordable manner seems kind of fanaticism given the incredible amount of evidence to the contrary.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by salawat on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:42PM (#21548045)
Keep in mind the United States only fails so spectacularly at socialized system implementation because the power of the socialized service to negotiate is defanged to prop up the excesses of the private sector.

Let the government flex its muscles without artificial constraint, and watch how fast the market has to rein itself in to remain competitive.

The reason Medicare is loathed, is because Medicare has a mandate to not excessively spend, and it's pricing is actually determined by people with the public interest in mind first and foremost, as well as having its pricing accessible as a matter of public record instead of being hidden away in a locked filing cabinet somewhere.

The combination of those two factors are a powerful tool for shaping an industry away from "make as much money as possible while providing a service" to "provide as much service as possible while the money holds out".

It is a subtle, yet important difference.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by tptacek on Saturday November 16, 2019 @12:28AM (#21551181)
Medicare is loathed? That's news to me.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by salawat on Sunday November 17, 2019 @08:47AM (#21557886)
Sorry, I should have further qualified. It is loathed by the Medical Industrial Complex because they actually have the oomph to buy things at basically cost + a modest markup.

Unlike with insurers where price gouging becomes viable.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by wyclif on Sunday November 17, 2019 @01:08AM (#21556764)
Even Vox has said so. Anecdotal, but lot of people in the USA across the political spectrum seem to agree if you search around in the news: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/29/8910387/me...
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by vkou on Friday November 15, 2019 @10:55AM (#21545823)
Whereas the belief that the US is capable of implementing a non-socialized system in an affordable manner is so hilariously contrary to the evidence, that it makes faith in Santa Claus seem well-grounded.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by hoseja on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:48AM (#21543609)
I suspect there's also a healthy dose of not less fanatical social Darwinism thrown in there.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by AnIdiotOnTheNet on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:18AM (#21544498)
Another way to put that is that tech people, being tech people, try to solve fundamentally political or social problems by throwing technology at them. And so far it pretty much never works out, unsurprisingly, since it turns out not all problems can be solved with a website.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ClumsyPilot on Saturday November 16, 2019 @07:34PM (#21555829)
Other way of putting it: tech people do their job.

I mean, if an engineer is assigned to a project, what else is he/she meant to do?

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by tripzilch on Friday November 15, 2019 @09:14AM (#21544916)
The failure of these people to fix their state, you mean. Instead choosing for the easier and more profitable option of going into tech and the road paved with good intentions.

You can build gigantic multinational corporations, disrupt all kinds of industries, change significant parts of people's lives with tech all written with code and rules and regulations but somehow making a well-functioning country is too hard, even when there's well-working smaller prototypes available to learn from.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jhrmnn on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:23AM (#21542963)
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by hsailor on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:47AM (#21543317)
A jedermann Konto or Basiskonto refers only to a personal account. If a client uses this account for commercial activities (eg receiving payments in the said industry), the bank has every right to close the account.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by yati on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:16AM (#21543465)
So I can't use my personal account to receive salaries? Does the bank have to know/care about the details my profession?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ptaipale on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:40AM (#21543576)
Depends on what your "salary" is. In the EU, the banks are obligated to find out where you get your money. And they have an obligation to close your account if they don't get satisfactory answers. "Know your customer".

My bank has recently started to ask customers to clarify transfers, and even shoot and send some video of themselves, smiling, and explaining things. I haven't got that myself yet but several colleagues have. I'm thinking I should change banks, but am unsure if any other bank is any better, because this is the result of government regulation.

The EU laws to fight money laundering are in conflict with national laws for privacy. And because laws for money laundering impact tax revenue, they will triumph over privacy.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by TheOtherHobbes on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:17AM (#21543737)
My business got a KYC letter last year. So far I've ignored it. They haven't shut the account yet.

These things are usually treated as box ticking exercises, not as fervent investigative due diligence.

I would guess money laundering happens elsewhere.

For as little as $1m you can set up or buy a bank of your own. For $10m or more you can buy a regulated operating bank with employees and deposits.

The process is more complicated than plain old incorporation, but I would guess it won't be unduly troubling to people with a lot of spare cash at hand.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ptaipale on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:38AM (#21544620)
I suppose you can ignore the letters, if having your bank account suspended for some weeks doesn't cause major business risks to you. The downside with box ticking exercises is that eventually, someone may calculate the ticks, and his/her guidelines will say that this account belongs to a risky category.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Ralfp on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:47AM (#21543600)
In EU there is an anti-money laundering directive, but it’s mostly up to member countries how they’ll implement it.

As usual some countries implemented it reasonably while others didn’t.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ptaipale on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:01AM (#21543659)
The regulation is rather new, and at least Scandinavian banks seem to be hyper sensitive to be on the safe side from the money laundering risk point of view. In part this is due to the allegations and campaigns against Nordea and the actual laundering scandal at Swedbank. The privacy of customers (against having to provide personal information to the bank) is secondary.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by rusk on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:52AM (#21543624)
There are new stricter rules coming in 2020, which is, some theorise, a major motivation behind brexit ...
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by krageon on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:23AM (#21543998)
Your bank doesn't need to be so invasive, so if they are you need to switch. There is no EU directive that tells them to clarify things using some sort of weird video proof.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ptaipale on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:25AM (#21544012)
But that may still be the easiest of ways required by the financial authority - which comes up with its own rules, the EU rules only being the minimum of what regulators in each country must implement. Often regulators want to be stricter, in order appear as "good tax collectors" and to avoid being targeted by social media campaigns etc.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by GoblinSlayer on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:51AM (#21543620)
This is what puzzles me. Why they need an explanation how money flows in their own system? Don't they see all transfers?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ptaipale on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:23AM (#21544002)
They may see who is the sender of transfer, but that in itself is not a sufficient explanation for where the funds actually come and whether they are legitimate.

Series of transfers are a basic step in money laundering processes, so from that point of view the need for clarification of each step is understandable.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by kmlx on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:48AM (#21543610)
yes. they will close your account if you receive money from dubious activities (sex and drugs usually).

they will also close your account if you can't prove where the money is from.

i had this issue myself in europe. a friend paid me back a hefty sum. my friend had issues proving where he got the money from. my account was swiftly closed.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by oAlbe on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:37AM (#21543804)
What happens when an account is closed? Do they send you a check with the remainder of the money on the account, or do you lose everything?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by kmlx on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @07:53AM (#21637812)
you lose everything.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by odiroot on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:59AM (#21544782)
You can if you're employed by another entity. You cannot use the same account to run a business.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by merb on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:07AM (#21543691)
btw. that's not technically the truth since you can open a Basiskonto as a company.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by weinzierl on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:32AM (#21542996)
This is true and from what I understand it is available to any EU citizen. The technical term is "Jedermann-Konto" which means "account for everyone". The German Wikipedia article has a lot to say about this topic[1] but unfortunately I didn't find any information in English on it.

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedermann-Konto

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by pgeorgi on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:13AM (#21544459)
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Random_ernest on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:19AM (#21543744)
I know several people that had their account closed in germany for perfectly legal things. The Bank calls it: Geschäftsschädigendes Verhalten.

Stuff like gambling (which is legal in germany),or being iranian (which I suppose is legal too)

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by craydandy on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:55AM (#21543094)
Might be EU-thing, as the same applies to Finland. Banks also must provide basic payment card, and online banking for everyone.

https://www.finanssivalvonta.fi/en/Consumer-protection/quest...

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by odiroot on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:57AM (#21544773)
In Sparkassen. Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, DKB, etc can easily reject you.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by RileyJames on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:35PM (#21541775)
This debate is currently brewing in Australia, except its against providing services to mining companies.

When is right / wrong to boycott? And who should be allowed to? (Persons or companies)

Context: in Australia the prime minister (Scott Morrison) is looking into laws to ban boycotts by companies (who are being compelled by people / public opinion)

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by baroffoos on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:04PM (#21541898)
Thats a really good counter point and I can't think of any way the situations are different other than my morals saying working for pornhub is ok but trashing the planet is not. Of course thats totally subjective and someone could be of the opinion that working for pornhub is not ok.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Bartweiss on Friday November 15, 2019 @11:16AM (#21546039)
I think there is a distinction as far as the nature of the boycott, though it's not a clear line.

Declining to buy from or work for a company is pretty much always justifiable. Refusing to provide customer-specific services/work (a rental crane, management consulting, etc.) is a more impactful move, but it's still basically a refusal to engage with the target, either by providing a limited resource or by being enabling their specific actions Refusing them non-scarce, non-specific transactions (e.g. buying lumber) is more extreme, and can become worrying in markets with little competition.

Refusing content-agnostic services is the most extreme and hardest to justify action. These are things that don't connect to the nature of their boycott target, and which many people rely on continuous access to, so even when alternatives exist being forced to switch is actively damaging. We've seen it with DDoS protection, payment processing, and DNS support, but it becomes more vividly alarming if we imagine denying electricity or highway access to an unpopular business. This is why even as Cloudflare decided to shut down Stormfront, they publicly worried that it was a dangerous path to go down.

Finally, I think the situation with payment processors is actually much worse than with DDoS protection, partway to providers of vital services like water and electricity. PayPal is not necessary for survival, but access to money essentially is. And the usual rationale of "you can't force us to deal with anyone else, go open a competitor" is compromised by the extremely tight regulation of payment processors. If PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard decide to shut someone down, there aren't many alternatives. And when we get into tightly-regulated businesses taking government-friendly actions that wouldn't be legal to demand directly (like blocking payments to Wikileaks), the situation gets even murkier...

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by magduf on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:09PM (#21547160)
>but it becomes more vividly alarming if we imagine denying electricity or highway access to an unpopular business. This is why even as Cloudflare decided to shut down Stormfront, they publicly worried that it was a dangerous path to go down.

I can understand their worry, but I think they did the right thing. If I owned a hosting service, I wouldn't provide services to people like that either. I don't want to be known as "the hosting company for neo-Nazis".

If a service is so important that no one should be denied it, no matter how repulsive they are, then I think it's government's job to ensure those people receive that service. No one can really deny highway access to unpopular businesses; highways are owned and operated by the government. Electricity is a little different, because it's usually privately-owned but heavily regulated because it's a local monopoly in many places, so I imagine most regulations would forbid them from supplying power to unpopular customers. Internet hosting service, however, is not government-owned, nor a utility or monopoly in any way. There's countless providers all over the planet. Or you can just set up your own; you don't really have to host your website on a hosting service. People used to run their own webservers all the time. Physical internet access (your neighborhood ISP), however, is much more akin to the electric utility.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Bartweiss on Monday November 18, 2019 @11:03AM (#21565347)
Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest that I think Cloudflare was wrong. And given that they did the thing while worrying about the consequences, they clearly figured it was the right thing to do also.

As far as the basic elements of life - utilities and travel access - it's good that they're effectively guaranteed neutrality by governments. Given that living without running water and power is illegal in much of the US, it's obviously not reasonable for the providers to cut people off at will.

Hosting is certainly not any kind of right. Cloudflare's position is a bit different, because without DDoS protection an unpopular site will be permanently inaccessible - it's not just "go do it yourself" but "people who dislike you will effectively shut this down". Even there, though, you could plausibly find another provider or make an attempt to do it yourself. Internet access via ISPs is far more fundamental, which is why I don't mind Cloudflare's action but have serious objections to UK-style mandates that ISPs block certain content.

I suppose my larger question is where the bounds lie on speech as a practical right. It's easy to say "we're not stopping your speech, just your ability to put up your own website". And in reality, hateful content similar to what Cloudflare targeted shows up on all sorts of other blogs, forums, etc. But "you can't have a site" is tantamount to "you can only say this if you find another private party willing to leave it on their site". When we look at physical equivalents, saying "you can publish these thoughts if a mainstream paper will take them, but you're not allowed to print zines" would obviously be illegal, so I'd object to government-ordered shutdowns. But "somebody took all your free zines out of the box and burned them" is probably fair game between private entities, and is a closer analogue to "no DDoS protection".

Even more broadly than that, I think we have a pressing unsolved issue of private actions which are implicitly government-ordered. (This doesn't apply to the Cloudflare thing.) This was a big issue in the 1930/40s, with press and radio content being "managed" via the threat of IRS and antitrust investigations, but it was never actually resolved - practical changes just obviated the issue. Between TV consolidation, "safe harbor" laws, online payment processors, and large tech companies with strong government ties, that concern seems to be rising again.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by magduf on Monday November 18, 2019 @01:15PM (#21566626)
>But "you can't have a site" is tantamount to "you can only say this if you find another private party willing to leave it on their site".

This isn't really true though. Sure, not being able to find any hosting on the internet would mean no internet presence, but no one is stopping you from making a big sign and standing on a street corner, or using your PC and laser printer to print out a bunch of pamphlets full of your views. This is exactly what people did before the invention of electronic communications, and it worked.

There's nothing in the 1A about free speech being easy or convenient or global in reach, just that the government can't pass a law abridging it.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by kortilla on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:02AM (#21542316)
Mining != trashing the planet. Also, given that there is literally no alternative to mining, how do your morals allow you to support mining companies by using their products?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by baroffoos on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:14AM (#21542368)
The coal mines in Australia are totally unnecessary. Australia is one of the best countries in the world for the ability to be powered on renewable energy. Which is now cheaper than coal. Literally the only purpose for coal in Australia is political reasons now.

Yes I know coal is used for the production of other materials but there is more than enough coal currently being mined for steel. We just need to stop senselessly burning it when there is limitless energy raining down on empty desert.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by brigandish on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:21AM (#21542706)
From what I know (and I don't claim to be an expert), solar panels require mining and also cause a lot of waste (what happens to a panel after its 20 year life cycle?). I've not heard whether solar farms would work in Australia - wouldn't the amount of distance be a problem? - nor whether they'd actually be any more efficient than nuclear. Certainly, I recently watched Michael Schellenberger's talk (it's in article form here[1]) and I was surprised at how destructive renewables seem when more detail is given about their implementation.

[1] https://quillette.com/2019/02/27/why-renewables-cant-save-th...

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jdnenej on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:08AM (#21542902)
Most of the materials from a panel should be recycleable. The bulk of the panel is an aluminium and glass wrapper over the solar cells. Glass and aluminium are very recycleable.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by vetinari on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:43AM (#21543834)
They also contain metals like lead, chromium and cadmium. Recycling solar panels is not that simple or clean, it also involves burning plastic.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by spats1990 on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:18AM (#21543978)
Sounds like that thing about the perfect being the enemy of the good to me.

This chain of comments is interesting to me because it seems to follow a theme I always see around discussion of mining in Australia. To put it extremely bluntly, it usually goes: "Australia is in an advantageous position for a pivot to solar energy" --> "Well yes but we can't just stop mining, and solar panels aren't perfect by the way!"

Related is the (to me) laughable notion that someone who uses products derived from Australian mining or benefited indirectly from that industry (almost unavoidable given Australian rare earth mining, for example, and the size of the mining industry in Australia) is somehow a moral hypocrite. I'm sorry, but by that logic, one is a moral hypocrite if one has criticized politicians but has not personally tried to make a difference in the system by becoming one; or one is a moral hypocrite for criticizing Google while continuing to use Gmail. It has no end. "Oh, you want a greener world, but I see you got on a plane once. Checkmate!!"

No one reasonable thinks renewables like solar are a perfect solution. They just don't produce on such a drastic scale things like unlined coal ash dumps that leak into the groundwater.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by brigandish on Friday November 15, 2019 @11:11AM (#21545990)
Well, if we’re going down the route of fallacies then the post I replied to was cherry picking to produce a false dilemma, but to claim that would be just as unfair as your straw man. They made the choice between “limitless energy raining down on empty desert“ and coal, without mentioning a) how to move the energy, b) how to get the materials for the panels, c) how to clean up / recycle the panels, or d) why nuclear in the desert isn’t a choice.

I’d say nuclear seems the good choice here versus a perfect that’s so perfect it’s utopian. It’s not wrong to question utopian visions. By all means, get rid of coal - is anyone arguing on this page arguing against it?

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by kortilla on Saturday November 16, 2019 @03:21PM (#21554720)
Cool, don’t conflate coal mining with mining and you won’t have so many issues going forward.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by baroffoos on Sunday November 17, 2019 @05:09PM (#21560345)
The parent comment mentioned the boycotts in Australia. Maybe I should have added the context for those not in on Australian news but these boycotts are all about coal mining in Australia.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Dylan16807 on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:23AM (#21543495)
It's fine for 99% of companies to do boycotting. But something like payment processing is a critical utility, and needs to be available in reasonably convenient form to everyone.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by nintendo1889 on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:29PM (#21541983)
Think about refusing to bake a cake for homosexuals. How is this any different?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Legogris on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:18AM (#21542397)
Companies != individuals.

Companies do not (and should not, IMO) fall under the protection of discrimination.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by oneplane on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:38PM (#21542016)
It's different because it's about critical services with no alternatives.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Chris2048 on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:16AM (#21543463)
Bake a generic cake for homosexuals, or bake a homosexual cake?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by baroffoos on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:15AM (#21542376)
Legally its different because sexuality is protected so you may not discriminate based on it. How that list is chosen is somewhat arbitrary however.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by StreamBright on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:25AM (#21543218)
A company cannot really have a religious believe.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by magduf on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:13PM (#21547208)
This is just plain wrong. Look at all the religion-run hospitals in America, and how they use religious values to affect their patient care and which services they do and don't allow. This has been affirmed by the court system even.

I personally don't like it one bit; people should be getting medical services based on the latest medical science, not based on some millennia-old book of fables, but unfortunately that's the law and the situation currently. And you can't just say "go to a different hospital", because in a lot of rural or small-city areas, these religious hospitals are the only providers around, so they have a local monopoly.

As another counterpoint, just look at Chik-Fil-A. That's absolutely a religious company, and they're quite proud of it. I don't like it either, so I don't eat there (then again, I avoid fast food anyway), but countless Americans are either OK with it, or really like it.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by StreamBright on Sunday November 17, 2019 @03:53AM (#21557121)
You are talking about the religious beliefs of people running the company.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by magduf on Monday November 18, 2019 @10:44AM (#21565162)
No, I'm not. These companies push the company's religious beliefs and values onto the employees, and onto their customers when they can.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Gibbon1 on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:00AM (#21543653)
A company is a government granted charter. Government has an interest in what the company does.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by SlowRobotAhead on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:13PM (#21541672)
Talk to gun retailers that were shut down by Chase and Bank of America.

Legal has nothing to do with it. There is an increasing degree of business that entirely revolves around feelings of people who yell the loudest.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by beatgammit on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:34PM (#21541767)
This tells me we need more anonymity.

A bank doesn't need to know any more about you than wherever is necessary to complete a transaction and report tax details to you and the government, and honestly that can be done with only a tax identification number (which should be separate from a Social Security Number). The same goes for payment processors, though payment processors may additionally need a company/individual nickname (for convenience in printing on receipts) and a bank account to deliver funds.

I see absolutely no reason for an organization like PayPal or Chase to know who its clientele are, just whether they're legal from a tax perspective, unless the customer provides that voluntarily. And I could even see legislation preventing the collection of such data since it could be used to restrict access to essential services like banking.

I think this gets us most of the benefits of cryptocurrency from a privacy point of view, but still maintains the ability of a government to track down fraud by cross referencing tax data with transactions. The only time someone need be connected to their bank account or payment processor account is if they're suspected of a crime, which would require a warrant.

It shouldn't be possible, IMO, for payment processors to just refuse service based on dislike for the line of work the business owner is in. There are no restrictions on how currency may be used, so digital payments should be treated the same way.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by madamelic on Friday November 15, 2019 @09:12AM (#21544901)
KYC and AML regulations.

Know your customer and Anti-money laundering.

Those two are why banks need to know about you. Cash is harder to track, while well-organized digital cash is not.

Any time someone is dealing with money, both of those need to be covered. It is why Stripe is so valuable, they handle PCI, KYC and AML with a fantastic API.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by oneplane on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:45PM (#21542051)
But then how would you know if you are processing stolen money?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by netmonk on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:39AM (#21544068)
how do you know that the cashback the shop clerk is handing your right now for your diet coke purchase wasnt used three days ago for buying Heroin in the street ?

We dont know and we dont care !

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by oneplane on Friday November 15, 2019 @09:04PM (#21550488)
Because it comes from a known source. The problem isn't where the physical money has been in the past it's entire lifetime but what it enabled last. This is also why laundering money is a thing, because if you can prove you got the money in a clean way you are no longer on the hook.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by alacombe on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:59AM (#21542870)
Thanks to Obama-era Operation Choke-Point.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by IAmGraydon on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:34PM (#21541999)
Checking accounts or merchant accounts? Most banks shy away from processing credit cards for adult sites because the chargeback rate is sky high and it therefore presents elevated risk. It has nothing to do with discrimination.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by tluyben2 on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:45AM (#21543054)
Or just fix that system; here (EU) it is not all that easy to chargeback (and impossible in many cases) because payments are secured; if you yell fraud, they will start an investigation (mostly automated); if the IP you paid from was around your house, you filled in correct info, you did 3dsecure (which is used on all my cards now; I had a few that did not have it and they got frauded, but a simple check showed it could not have been me and they reversed them all; they now have 3dsecure too for that reason) which means you knew specific secret information, maybe have a token device and/or the phone of the card owner, they will decline the chargeback request. If you are in your country most of the time and suddenly there is a 1000E charge from a merchant in Dubai, they will block it and call you.

The ease with which you can do chargebacks in the US is harmful in a lot of cases imho. I have been a merchant (of digital goods; gaming, not gambling or adult) and got annoyed enough of US chargebacks (including from Paypal) that we started doing annoying KYC and added very long waiting periods before product delivery for US customers. We had certain payment methods (bank, and there were some payment methods that do not allow chargeback) that had immediate delivery. That fixed it, mostly. It hurts sales, but I rather make less revenue and more profit than pay for product only to lose it to scammers.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by jotm on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:00AM (#21543389)
Thankfully I've had better chargeback experiences with EU banks. I've only requested chargebacks on products I've not received, and provided my attempts to communicate with the seller. Always got my money back, but was blocked from buying from that merchant again (not that I'd try it after the bad experience).
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by 4ad on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:57AM (#21543648)
Anectodal, etc, but I could never get a chargeback in Europe. In the US it was always very easy.

In the EU I couldn't get a chargeback even when the company said they mistakenly charged me twice, and that I should do a chargeback.

I know that theoretically the law is on my side, but practically I found it to be a huge hassle in the EU.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by tluyben2 on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:01AM (#21543658)
I have had good chargeback experiences as well in the cases you name. I am talking about cases where it is clear where you are frauding the merchant which are still easy in the US. 3dsecure in most cases means you have to have coerced me AND have stolen my phone/token device. How would this warrant chargeback unless actually you did not receive your product and there is a clear trace of that. In this case indeed, you can chargeback. But not just randomly when you feel like it.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by 4ad on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:11AM (#21543712)
3dsecure is security theater, I hate it so much. It doesn't matter if you have 3dsecure, because a scammer can use your card on some site that doesn't use 3dsecure. All 3dsecure does is making it harder for me to pay to legitmate websites in the EU. But wait, more often than not I can't pay at all because (in my case) 3dsecure uses SMS, and SMS delivery is unreliable, I can't get SMS from my bank when I travel to the US, or even some when I travel to some other EU countries. For me, it doesn't work approximatively 50% of the time.

And of course, SMS 2FA is not secure at all. Now if there's fraud and the scammer used 3dsecure with spoofed SMS, good luck convinging the bank it wasn't you.

"But SMS is not the only option" you say, "other banks have better 2FA", actually, I use other banks too. And they have something insane for 2FA: https://lobste.rs/s/1cyltz/two_factor_authentication_now_ava....

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by tluyben2 on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:16AM (#21543731)
If the site does not have 3dsecure then chargeback is easy...

And yes, agreed, SMS stinks. I have tokens for everything and insist on that. Unfortunately some banks now only have sms...

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by 4ad on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:19AM (#21543745)
See my edit about hw tokens. To me hw tokens are bad, not only because of the UI/UX disaster explained in the link above, but because I have to have the damn thing with me. Also, batteries ran out while I was in the US for 4 months, and the bank would not send me a new one, I'd have to come get it in person. Thanks bank!

And chargeback was always impossible in my case. In the US I click a button in the webui, or call a phone number. In the EU, I had to come in person to the bank three times, and fill all kinds of forms, and in the end, I still didn't get my money back.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by tluyben2 on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:29AM (#21543783)
Seems you had bad luck but to me that still doesn't warrant free 'screw all merchants' card.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by chc on Friday November 15, 2019 @01:29PM (#21547364)
The EU system is fine with fraud as long as the fraud involved tricking you into approving a charge? That doesn't seem right. So I could sell Rolexes for $50 and nobody could get their $50 back when I send them a toy watch from the Wal-Mart checkout line?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by barsonme on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:42AM (#21543299)
Pretty much everything you mentioned under "secured" payments occurs in the US, too.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by tluyben2 on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:37AM (#21543561)
Why is it so easy to charge back then? If it's secured then they know it was you... Unless you have a police report saying you were coerced, forced, something was stolen?
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by 4ad on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:56AM (#21543645)
Because US banks prefer to keep customers happy, unlike EU banks.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by tluyben2 on Friday November 15, 2019 @04:58AM (#21543650)
How does that work? If you can be sure it was owner initiated, then you allow, outside of some corner cases (which work here too), people to fraud merchants. That makes people happy?

Edit; I know there are more reasons for chargeback and those you can get across the line here too, however, 'frivolous' chargebacks are not good for anyone but they are easy in the US.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by 4ad on Friday November 15, 2019 @05:02AM (#21543670)
You are assuming that people only do chargeback in the case of some kind of fraud where other people stole your card details and spent your money. That is not the case. There are many other reasons to do a chargeback, far more reasons in fact.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by perlpimp on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:45AM (#21544092)
AFAIK there it was put in the law(at least US/Canada) that credit card company have to return money and deal with fraudsters their way, CC companies have some really rabid investigators. If they behave improperly you can voice a complaint for financial regulatory authorities - banks really hate dealing with the government.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by 4ad on Friday November 15, 2019 @06:55AM (#21544130)
Yeah, the law is on your (customer's) side in the EU also. Unfortunately people don't know that, so banks can afford to bully their customers into renouncing their claims. Technically if you are the type of person who knows how to deal with these types of problematic businesses that push you around, you will eventually prevail, but it will cost you a lot of time and effort. In my case, the financial loss was not high enough in order to waste even more than three trips to the bank.

My partner's parents were hit hard though, about €5k. They argued back and forth with the bank for about 6 months to no avail. "Sorry, we can't do anything" type of answers. The bank also tried to trick them into signing "fraud forms" that in the fine print absolved the bank of any responsibility. It was only after I actually filed a claim with relevant financial authorities, and then hit the bank with that that they suddenly got their money back.

The interesting thing is that this mentality is so prevalent that even the non-fraud department bank employees genuinely didn't know that the bank is supposed to actually help them. Many of them told us their own stories about how they were defrauded (I have no reason to suspect they were lying because they were family friends, and I heard the stories before our incident).

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by onlyrealcuzzo on Thursday November 14, 2019 @07:06PM (#21540991)
Can anyone explain how this even happens?

Who could possibly threaten a bank over handling financial transactions for sex workers? And what could they possibly threaten the bank with?

Even if it's some big business like Chick-fil-A...

Presumably they only bank with one bank, and presumably the porn and sex work industry has more money at that bank than Chick-fil-A.

How's this actually work? It's not making sense to me.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by sandworm101 on Thursday November 14, 2019 @07:47PM (#21541231)
Amateur porn? User-uploaded X-rated videos? When things go wrong they go wrong fast. Professional studios know how to abide by all the various regulations, many of which change from one state (or even city) to another. Amateurs with webcams in their bedrooms do not. Just look at the "Girls do porn" fiasco to see why someone might not want to do business with an amateur-focused studio.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by dredmorbius on Thursday November 14, 2019 @08:54PM (#21541589)
That's not a ... relevantly fruitful ... search term.

Have any relevant links?

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by belltaco on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:00PM (#21541614)
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by dredmorbius on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:36PM (#21541779)
Thanks.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by trhway on Thursday November 14, 2019 @07:32PM (#21541149)
>Who could possibly threaten a bank over handling financial transactions for sex workers? And what could they possibly threaten the bank with?

The SESTA/FOSTA for banking seems to be coming:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-sex-workers-are-wary-of-el...

"Warren’s joint effort with Florida Senator Marco Rubio in 2017 to introduce legislation that would enable banks to discriminate against sex worker, known as the “End Banking for Human Traffickers Act.” (Despite bipartisan support Warren and Rubio’s initiative was never voted on by the Senate, but the same bill has been reintroduced this year as H.R.295 - End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2019 and just passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee in March.) "

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by bitwize on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:19PM (#21541942)
> Who could possibly threaten a bank over handling financial transactions for sex workers?

The government. The sex work industry was targeted by the Obama administration under Operation Chokepoint. Banks that dealt with customers the administration didn't like were subject to greater scrutiny and regulatory action.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by thaumasiotes on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:41PM (#21541801)
> Who could possibly threaten a bank over handling financial transactions for sex workers?

The government. They do it right out in the open.

> And what could they possibly threaten the bank with?

Shutting down the bank.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by onlyrealcuzzo on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:56PM (#21542083)
How do they do this in the open? The bank isn't doing anything illegal.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Bartweiss on Friday November 15, 2019 @11:36AM (#21546256)
Know Your Customer laws can directly transfer legal liability to banks, but it's not just that.

The Bank Secrecy Act requires banks to provide "suspicious activity reports" on a wide variety of transactions, which can trigger seizure of funds without convictions. And structuring rules can make do the same to suspiciously-organized <$10k deposits even without evidence of other crime, which has happened to a number of small business owners who by sheer coincidence did that amount of revenue.

Filing those reports can get all of the assets in question seized, and failing to file them or filing them too slowly can incur extremely large fines. So the bank runs the risk of 1. having the funds in question seized, so they don't even get to collect interest, and 2. being fined a large multiple of the amount of money in question any time they overlook an instance. That's not directly involving the bank in anything illegal, but it amounts to "if you handle suspicious transactions, you won't make money on them and can potentially be fined lots of money". It effectively threatens banks for working with anything that looks similar to illegal transactions, even if they know its a different industry. And since the private cash transactions for this sort of work can look like either escorting or drug-dealing...

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by kortilla on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:03AM (#21542328)
Until they find out they’ve been banking for a prostitute and KYC kicks in.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by phire on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:03PM (#21541887)
I doubt anyone is threatening banks on this based on moral grounds.

I suspect it's just fraud, people using stolen credit cards and bank details to pay for porn (because porn can be delivered digitally)

So these accounts disproportionately show up in the fraud department and the fraud department spends more time dealing with those accounts than the profit generated.

Eventually, the bank or payment processor decides it would be less effort just to get rid of the customers causing issues. The moral questions probably means nobody internally feels like defending them.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Terretta on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:08PM (#21541912)
SCENARIO

Usually it’s not stolen credit cards, usually it’s their card but they say it was stolen and try to do a charge back.

Hubby pays for porn.

Wife looks at bill.

Hubby denies it, must have been identity theft!

They demand a charge back since clearly card stolen by unknown porn hound, not innocent hubby.

CONSEQUENCES

Card processors and especially customers of card processors get their accounts flagged for too many returns / charge backs, which cost much more to handle than the original transaction fees compensate for. Rates go from a couple percent to 20%, making business models not work.

Banks that the processor deposited into when card swiped, have to risk manage how much money to hold back from the customer in case 2 months later all the deposits get sucked back out by charge backs. What happens if the bank customer had withdrawn their money?

BAD OUTCOME

Very hard problem, easier to just not deal with sectors that have extreme and unpredictable charge backs.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by oneplane on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:44PM (#21542046)
Or maybe just tell your wife that you like to buy porn.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by teniutza on Friday November 15, 2019 @02:39AM (#21543032)
*Ex wife
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Spooky23 on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:22PM (#21541957)
Look at the recent scandal with “Girls do Porn”. Some nasty people exploited and harmed women through dishonesty and grift.

Do you want your bank associated with that? Do you want to be sued because you benefited from the conduct or financed it?

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by oneplane on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:43PM (#21542041)
If you are going to care about what your bank is associated with, you might as well pull in banks that fund fossil fuel and weapons. Of if you like a different flavour, one that funds nuclear energy and planned parenthood. It's not like a bank is a nice place where only nice things happen for everyone's preferences and perspectives.

Unless you can find a bank that only does 1 thing and it happens to be a thing you like, there will always be something to be up in arms about. Maybe not immediately, but always something, some time. Today it's PornHub, tomorrow it's meat, and next year it's oil.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by dual_basis on Thursday November 14, 2019 @10:57PM (#21542092)
Banks are associated with much worse at the higher levels of the income bracket.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by Iv on Thursday November 14, 2019 @08:08PM (#21541350)
More broadly, financial institutions should be accountable.

Because, indeed, discrimination is illegal, but suing a bank for it is long and very difficult if your account is frozen.

Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by ryanSrich on Friday November 15, 2019 @11:27AM (#21546165)
Seems like an interesting opportunity for a new bank — be the bank for porn, cannabis, etc.
Re:PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub by lostlogin on Thursday November 14, 2019 @09:36PM (#21541781)
Considering the things that banks have financed in the past, the hypocrisy of this stance by banks is incredible. Everything up to and including genocide has been ok by them.