Thread by @mikestabile

Mastercard has announced it will require documentation of "clear, unambiguous, and documented consent" on all adult images on any site that processes using its credit cards. It's hard to see this as anything as a disaster for sex workers. 1/

mastercard.com/news/perspecti…

While everyone — especially sex workers — want networks content is legal and consensual, regulations such as these will either mean social media sites like Twitter and Reddit will now have to store performer IDs and model releases or... 2/

...more likely, just stop dealing with adult content entirely. If not, they risk not being able to process payments on their network. It's hard to explain how short-sighted this is, and how devastating it will be to independent performers 3/

Mastercard's plan *sounds* so good in theory — just document consent — but they have no idea what that takes, or what the real effect will be. 4/

They are also asking for "Content Review Prior to Publication" — this is something adult sites do, but social media does not. You want to upload something to Twitter? You just do it and it appears. Now, someone will have to review it, and have multiple avenues to block it. 5/

Mastercard is also asking that anyone who is depicted in such a video be able to petition remove it through an appeals process. Does this mean that someone who was of legal age and signed a model release can now get a video taken down? Unclear! 6/

They're also asking for additional certification from banks that provide financial to adult sites. "Banks that connect merchants to our network will need to certify that the seller of adult content has effective controls in place ... 7/

"... to monitor, block and, where necessary, take down all illegal content." My read on this is that it will become even harder for sex workers and adult businesses to access banking. 8/

And that we'll see additional restrictions from Dropbox, Google Drive, Paypal ... just about everyone. 9/

In fact, adult sites will have this covered with little problem. We already know how to handle model releases and IDs and have systems in place. Most large companies don't ... and likely won't bother. 10/

Visa/Mastercard are BY FAR the largest censors of legal adult content online, and have been for years. The government actually needs proof, credit card processors just need to whisper *liability,* and a whole legal industry is crushed. 11/

Hopefully I'm wrong. But the situation seems dire. Crypto couldn't have come at a better time. #MasterCensors #VisaVictims

And as @itslittlepbigd just pointed out, how to do you pre-approve live content like cams?