Major financial institutions are giving hundreds of pornographers the boot because they don't approve of "Back Door Hoes Vol. 14."

Major financial institutions are giving hundreds of pornographers the boot because they don't approve of "Back Door Hoes Vol. 14."

Now that craft stores may lay claim to religious rights, it should come as no surprise the banking industry took those reins into its own hands long before it was legal to fuck over sexually active adults in these fun, new ways.
Focusing their efforts on the porn industry, PayPal, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and City National Bank, as well as the country’s major credit-card companies, stand accused of cutting off or refusing services to hundreds of porn workers and businesses. As they continue to close and freeze porn-industry clients’ accounts and, in the case of PayPal, ban porn workers from using their services entirely, they’re also silently refusing to explain the anti-sex stance.

Most recently, PayPal targeted camera show sales, citing its Acceptable Use Policy in banning porn creator Teal Conrad from its site for transactions including “certain sexually oriented materials or services,” according to an April Al Jazeera report, preventing her from using the service to bank and track her tax responsibilities.

PayPal continues to deny opportunities to specify to both clients and the media exactly what “certain” entails or why it cares.

In another instance, porn creator Tasha Reign’s accounts were frozen — which can last three to six months — for alleged, but non-specific, security threats.

The targets remain unquestionable: sex, especially sexually explicit videos that allegedly pose a security threat to one of the most secure financial websites in the world, and those individuals who stand to profit from it.
These financial institutions punish pornographers, effectively cutting the legs out from under those who work on their knees. And with PayPal holding a near monopoly on most sites as the only trusted means of exchanging funds for goods and services online, other affected porn-industry professionals echo concerns they have no voice or means to make and track a legal revenue source.

Two years ago, PayPal and its associated credit card companies — the most popular, but conveniently never cited being Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express — went after Smashwords, one of the world’s largest distributors of independent e-books, for the company’s erotica.
“Legally, PayPal and the credit card companies probably have the right to decide how their services are used,” Smashwords founder Mark Coker said in a March 2012 release. “Unfortunately, since they’re the moneyrunners, they control the oxygen that feeds digital commerce.”

The targets remain unquestionable: sex, especially sexually explicit videos that allegedly pose a security threat to one of the most secure financial websites in the world, and those individuals who stand to profit from it.

In Chase’s case, the hundreds of porn-industry professionals struggled to get any explanation at all, but former porn workers Joshua Lehman and Teagan Presley say the bank told them it was because of their “industry,” even as the bank’s corporate headquarters denied the accusation as well as any interviews that could clear its name.

As with police and societal attempts to reduce prostitutes, not prostitution, discriminatory regulations on porn and the porn industry, and the big birth-control debate involving Hobby Lobby, professionals across the board say our country’s policies unfairly target women.

“It’s a much deeper issue than just banking,” porn star Tasha Reign told Al Jazeera. “We live in a Puritanical and patriarchal society that discriminates especially against female sex workers.”

Coker says he shares the concern that these policies and practices disproportionately affect women. Porn is one of the few industries in the world in which women typically make more than men.

“Several Smashwords authors have contacted me to stress that this censorship affects women disproportionately,” Coker said. “Women write a lot of the erotica, and they’re also the primary consumers of erotica.”
In the case of Smashwords, pushing back helped, and the company resumed its services with only temporary changes.

“They worked with us in good faith as they promised, engaged us in dialogue, made the effort to understand Smashwords and our mission, went to bat for our authors with the credit card companies and banks, and showed the courage to revise their policies,” Coker said.

It appears, however, that’s true for written porn alone. Hiding behind online “security” and “sexually oriented” concerns suits these financial institutions quite despite an ever-growing list of accusations they’ve targeted pornographers in denying services.

Burwell vs Hobby Lobby just made discriminating against women and the nation’s favorite industry easier, adding “religious” concerns to the long list of reasons everybody’s encouraged to fuck the sexually active these days. It turns out businesses have both religions and dicks. Look out, ladies; this doesn’t end well.