Adult content platform DLsite disables Visa/Mastercard payment after attempt to outsmart credit card companies
Update (2024-04-05 10:14 JST): DLsite has announced that payment via American Express will also be temporarily suspended on the platform, effective from April 4, 6:30 PM (JST). The only credit card payment option available now is the Japan-based JCB.
Eisys announced that payment via Visa and Mastercard on their 2D adult content-dominated doujinshi and game platform DLsite will be temporarily suspended, effective from April 3rd, 6 PM (JST). This comes after DLsite’s attempts to “self-censor” some of their adult content tags by hiding or rewording them in response to demands made by credit card companies.
One week ago, DLsite had notified its creators that they would be replacing or hiding certain expressions used on the platform in response to requests from credit card companies. DLsite decided to comply with the request as more than half of the transactions on their platform were being made by credit card. The decision was announced only to registered creators on the site, but soon gathered attention on social media due to the sarcastic nature of the implemented “censorship.”
DLsite attempted to bypass credit card companies’ requirements by renaming genres such as “loli” to euphemisms such as “hiyoko” (meaning “chick” in Japanese) or “rape” to “no consent.” But as many users predicted at the time, this seems to have been an unacceptable response, as DLsite has now temporarily terminated payment via Visa and Mastercard, asking users to switch to alternatives such as American Express.
DLsite is not the only Japanese platform to run into trouble with credit card companies due to hosting adult content, as similar instances can be seen with DMM, Fanza, Niconico and Skeb. The art commission service Skeb famously responded to such requests by introducing payment via their own crypto asset Skeb Coin back in June 2022.
It’s really disgusting how Payment Processors are bringing their politics and censorship in to dictate how consumers spend their money. Honestly scary and I’m at least glad Japan has its own processors to manage things, but this makes things difficult for foreigners. AMEX isn’t exactly a surefire stable source either. At the very least, there are still other ways to get points.
Sadly the censorship with Credit Card companies is not new and it appears to be a game of hide and seek. Even lewd Visual Novel sites like Mangagamer had to try to go with new distributors like Stripe and even hide the main site and then have a banner in the right hand corner to indicate that you can enter in the R18 version of the site as a whole that credit card companies just are uneasy with, even when you do go to the R18 area, genitals are covered in a funny silhouette of a mascot. Hopefully there is better ways around this type of censorship, even if research has to go into Blockchain/Crypto and some new forward movement so people can buy what they like in privacy without harassment.
Unfortunately this is a prime example for why some sites should look at crypto alternatives like Skeb did with Skebcoin not too long ago
They need to switch to allowing multiple cryptocurrencies. That’s the only way to bypass these authoritarian card companies that think they have the right to tell people how they’re allowed to spend their money. They don’t need to offer their own cryptocurrency, I think that’s a miss, but allow payments in Bitcoin, Etherium, Solana, or some other simple and abundant alt currency.