pixiv to ban transactions on its services regarding certain content including incest and bestiality

pixiv released an announcement stating that its Service Master Terms of Use will be updated on December 15. The update will apply to certain transactions on services operated by the company such as BOOTH, pixivFANBOX, and pixiv Requests. The company adds that this is an important update which is why they are explaining it to users one month in advance.

According to pixiv, transactions on their services that go against the Terms of Use have been confirmed. The announcement lists content such as sexual exploitation of minors, incest, and bestiality, stating such content also goes against the rules and policies of international credit card companies. pixiv asks that users who have content available on their services that fall into such categories either take them down or set them to private.

The Service Master Terms of Use currently do not clearly list the above examples, but pixiv says they will be clarifying “the standards for items and content that fall under prohibited transactions.” The updated Terms of Use will be revealed in late November and go into effect on December 15. For those concerned about if they need to remove and make their content private, please check the updated Terms of Use later this month.

The announcement mentions the rules and policies of international credit card companies. Some credit card companies have policies to not handle transactions regarding specific items, which causes problems for certain sites from time to time. For example, DMM.com and adult content site FANZA ended their payment contract with Mastercard on July 20. While they avoided giving a direct reason, stating their “terms and conditions didn’t align,” it’s suspected that the credit card company was intervening with content on the sites (ねとらぼ/Nlab).

There are also cases where companies have introduced their own virtual currencies as a measure against interference from credit card companies. Comic Toranoana, a Japanese doujin chain store, uses Tora Coin for purchasing content and supporting creators on the Fantia platform. One Tora Coin is equal to one yen. The commission platform Skeb also introduced their own Skeb Coin currency in June. Users can use their credit cards to purchase these virtual currencies and then exchange them for the content they actually want. In other words, a layer of cushioning between the content and interference from credit card companies.

pixiv plans to release more details regarding the updated Terms of Use in late November. This has caused confusion among the creator community, but let’s first wait until we get more details about what’s changing. Check here for the full announcement.

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-11-15 22:46 JST)