Porn shows how financial firms are the new gatekeepers for the creator economy

For more than a decade, Stoya has been one of the most recognizable names in porn. But these days, like many in the adult industry, she is as subject to the whims of the creator economy as any YouTube or Instagram influencer.

As porn has become more like social media, its stars are learning the hard way about the instability of creating content online, ever dependent on opaque platforms with changing rules. The gatekeepers of the creator economy are not just social media platforms, but the infrastructure providers behind them. Financial firms like banks, credit card companies, and pay-out providers are now becoming the arbiters of what’s allowed.

What’s permitted on social media is at once ill-defined and mercurial leaving creators wondering how to support themselves on a platform that could shut them out entirely without much notice. In the financial sector, websites dealing in legal sex work have to register as “high-risk” merchants online and pay higher fees when selling products online. Or face being cut off entirely. Last year, Visa and Mastercard cut off payments on PornHub—further isolating an industry already cut off from many typical financial players.

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