You're still at the mercy of what the US networks deem acceptable. Even if you are German residing in Germany, have a German bank, your customer is German residing in Germany and has a German bank... say, you're a sex worker which is completely legal in Germany. And yet, you'll get booted off of anything where the US card networks are involved.
> As for donations, fair enough. Why not get your donations to an account outside of Germany to escape that headache?
Still tax evasion. Yes, I could create something like a Maltese shell company, but that is even more of an effort to set up and maintain.
As for Visa/Mastercard - yes you are at their mercy. They are not perfect, but what are your options right now, realistically? Except for manual verification of payments?
You don't have to use a US card processor, there are European options. The fact is that these processors have millions of companies using them, handling probably billions of transaction every year. They are much more reliable than European banks, who will close the bank accounts of sites and journalists writing things the banks don't agree with.
As for donations, fair enough. Why not get your donations to an account outside of Germany to escape that headache?
> Again, middle men. Middle men that are going to censor you for whatever reason - no matter your political direction, by the way.
I'm aware of the censorship concern. Still it's worth a shot to try to bundle your content with like minded, you don't necessarily need middle men for this.
All in all, something will have to change with the way online content is consumed and produced - at least if we want to take full advantage of the blessings of the information age instead of rotting at the mercy of a media oligopoly.