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Comment by tflinton | Hacker News Reader

Before anyone goes with pitchforks at Mastercard or Visa it's worth remembering that just because something isn't criminal it can still be quite a civil issue.

Visa and Mastercard take on quite a bit of risk by allowing payment transactions to companies who wade into murky businesses that while not illegal may have a lot of risk.

The amount of lawsuits that these processors get co-named in for providing payment rails is probably enormous and without laws protecting them I don't see how they don't have a choice in actively censoring.

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So we're supposed to capitulate to censors because it's hard to do business? If it's too hard, don't do it. I think Visa/Mastercard get more than enough business to justify the inevitbale costs/abuse of the system.

>The amount of lawsuits that these processors get co-named in for providing payment rails is probably enormous

yes, that's called being a billion dollar business. Literally any billion dollar business is facing dozens of lawsuits on the daily. They have dedicated lawyers on hand for this ineviability.

It’s still a very large considerably risk. They don’t have the equivalent of a net neutrality law to shield them. Money transferred on their network is their liability.

If so many other cases didn't end the other way in the US, there may have been a point. Websites aren't accountable for user content published on their servers. Gun manufacturers aren't accountable for school shootings, fast food isn't accountable for the obesity crisis. Police aren't accountable for shooting black people.

There's a lot that needs to change, but I don't see these businesses bothering. So forgive my lack of sympathy.

Websites aren't accountable for user content because of the DCMA and Safe harbor laws protecting them from the risk of what users post [1]. Gun manufacturers are protected from liability by the PLCAA [2]. Police aren't held accountable because of qualified immunity [3].

What i'm saying is no such protections exist for financial transaction that occur on a network. Infact, the opposite exists, laws exist (called Know Your Customer [4]) that specifically hold financial networks (like Visa and Mastercard) liable for allowing transactions related to fraud, money laundering or other high risk transactions like gambling and adult entertainment.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_harbor_(law) [2] https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/senate-bill/397... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualified_immunity [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer

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