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This post isn't really in response to any specific media, but rather recent developments in a troubling trend that many NSFW creators have been monitoring for a long time now.
Just recently, payment processors like Mastercard and Visa have been threatening to pull their services from several art platforms for hosting 18+ content. They claim that this decision is being made to stop the sharing of CSEM and non-consentual material, but in reality, this has led to the mass censorship of any and all adult content on several platforms that previously hosted said content! These platforms are caving in to these rules in an attempt to keep these services available on their sites.
Gumroad recently announced that they would be banning ALL suggestive/NSFW art from their platform. On Pixiv Fanbox, PayPal payments are now no longer supported for 18+ accounts. NSFW creators/artists using Patreon now have to "confirm the consent" of the characters they depict/play in their work from now on.
(This video goes into more detail as to what's happening and well as other sites being affected)
Of course, it wasn't bad enough that random payment processors are dictating what adults can and cannot do with their own money. There are many people who are ok with this mass censorship because they think that it's just targeting art they consider "bad" (Eg: Lolicon and shotacon, because appearantly drawings of fictional, tiny, bug-eyed, rainbow-haired anime characters are on par with real CSEM according to them and faceless payment processors). The video I linked also showcases examples of this behaviour.
Anyone who has really paid attention to these sort of incidents will know for a fact that this mass censorship will not stop at just the art they deem immoral. This is part of a much larger push for puritanical politics that's been going on for years now under the guise of "protecting children". This same phenomenon has been happening for the past few years with the way drag queens and trans people have been villainized by the media as supposedly being "child predators". And how sex workers have been constantly dehumanized and kicked off of several platforms, and have also had their own accounts frozen and funds taken away by 3rd party sites like Paypal. The aggressor knows that it's too weak to take on an entire powerful community head-on, so it will come for the more vulnerable groups first (trans people, drag queens, sex workers, "problematic" artists), infiltrate the community with their hatred and then destroy it from the inside out like termites in a log cabin.
People who support this push for censorship without second thought are as selfish as they are ignorant to the reality of this situation. They will continue to blindly support the mass censorship of art they hate until they're inevitably up next on the chopping block. In the eyes of censorship, it doesn't matter how "wholesome" or "good" a person's morals are, or how well the "wholesome" media they enjoy/create lines up with their "wholesome" moral compass; They're going to be seen as no less deserving of punishment than the same "freaks" they hate.
It's also disturbing to see how so many so-called "progressives" (especially those from marginalised groups) support and even carry out this borderline-fascist purging of so-called "degenerate" art when the same pro-censorship rhetoric they claim to be against is presented back to them wrapped in progressive sounding language.
The art in question isn't even considered "degenerate" anymore; It's called "problematic" now. And no longer is it just puritanical oldheads in power villainizing you for being "sinful" or "degenerate"; it's also faux-progressive minors and 18-25 year olds with "Proship DNI" in their bios harassing you for being "problematic" because they want to "protect the children"!
Please know that I'm not trying to force people into liking things that make them uncomfortable (lolisho, incest, dub-con/non-con, darker kinks in general, etc). You're allowed to dislike whatever you want and curate your space however you please! I just think that if we really are serious about "protecting the children", then maybe we should be focusing on advocating for the end of sexual abuse of kids in real life instead of worrying so much about cartoon characters who can't feel pain because they don't exist.
Instead of forcing artists to censor themselves for minors, we should be advocating for things like more spaces for kids and teens online. Flash games and age appropriate MMO sites were all the rage in the 2000's and early 2010s, but now they're practically non existent aside from a few sites such as Roblox, Coolmathgames and Nitrome. While they weren't always perfect, they were still a much safer alternative than having no child-friendly spaces at all like now, which forces minors to go on toxic platforms just so they can have somewhere to go (Eg: Twitter and Tiktok). I think we should bring those back, as well as proper child internet safety classes and campaigns.
Also, let's bring back the phrase "don't like, don't read"! As a little kid, I saw that line plastered in the description of every fanfic on fanfiction.net back in the 2000's and early 2010's. Now as an adult, I hardly see that line anymore, but we should definitely bring it back because there are a TON of people who really need to read it.
To end this rant, I want to share two things: First, I want to share this petition against Mastercard's decision which is currently up on ACLU! Please sign this and share it around if you can!
And finally, I want to share this poem that I think perfectly sums up the current situation. I decided to edit a few things here and there to update this poem for modern times. Enjoy!
First they came for the Communists lolicons
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist lolicon
Then they came for the Socialists proshippers
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist proshipper
Then they came for the trade unionists queer nsfw artists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist queer nsfw artist
Then they came for the Jews sex workers
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew sex worker
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.