A few things I’ve been reading

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A few things I’ve been reading:

"Web 2.0 has already demonstrated that information can’t be free; it can only be subsidized, most likely by entities with deep pockets and nefarious interests." This is a great read on the realities of the "creator economy," power law, and the trend toward the sanitized, corporate web.

Here are two great writeups of how experts predict Mastercard’s decision to change its requirements for banks that process payments for “sellers of adult content” will impact the adult industry.

First, expect VISA to join the fray. This is part of an ongoing move toward having banks and payment processors enforce standards such as age/identity verification requirements and a transparent process for addressing content takedown requests to sites where users upload content.

However, it’s sex-negative for payment processors to only target adult sites for these requirements as by all objective measures Facebook is a much bigger source of CSAM than Pornhub. 

That Mastercard is targeting adult sites specifically is evidence that Evangelical anti-porn crusaders are behind the push.

Then there’s this:

According to its online statement, Mastercard has formed a partnership with the Internet Watch Foundation, a British charity group whose own site gives its mission statement as “to eliminate child sexual abuse imagery online.” Mastercard has also partnered with WeProtect Global Alliance, another British anti-pornography group.

“Both of these organizations are leading the charge to fight sexual exploitation, protect the youngest consumers and make the internet a safer place for people of all ages,” Verdeschi said in the statement.

And more in news on the move toward a sanitized, corporate internet.

And in news that will shock no one who’s been paying a modicum of attention, a new study shows France’s version of the Nordic Model did what it always does: Make sex work more dangerous, especially for providers. “In fact, in just six months leading up to February of 2020, 10 French sex workers were murdered, as part of an overall uptick in violence against sex workers, according to the group Decrim Now, which advocates full decriminalization.” And it has never impacted the prevalence of sex work anywhere it’s been implemented.