Payment processor Stripe apologises after its employees claimed it had ‘banned’ LGBTQ+ purchases
A Stripe spokesperson apologised, saying the claim is ‘totally wrong’. (Getty)
A Stripe spokesperson apologised, saying the claim is 'totally wrong'. (Getty)
Online payment processor, Stripe, has apologised after employees reportedly said its services could not be used to purchase LGBTQ+ content.
Customers claimed in a series of online posts that several of the US-based payment processor’s customer service operators had said buying LGBTQ+ content using Stripe’s services was prohibited.
It comes after gaming marketplaces Itch.io and Steam were pressured to remove thousands of adult video games from the storefronts under pressure from payment processors, including Stripe.
The payment processor, which is part-owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, is best known for its online payment form used by thousands of websites to make customer checkouts easier.
Following concerns that the decision would affect age-appropriate LGBTQ+ content, adult artist Dieselbrain reportedly called Stripe’s customer service line to voice their concerns.
Writing in a Bluesky thread, the artist said, on two separate occasions, operators had said customers could not use Stripe services to purchase LGBTQ+ content.
“To be clear, I was very clear in asking, ‘Can I use Stripe for purchases of LGBT content’, and both times, different operators have told me that Stripe does not support such transactions,” they wrote.
Several customers replied to the thread, claiming to have heard similar things from Stripe employees. One user was allegedly told Stripe was blocking purchases of “non-explicit, legal, non-adult LGBT content.”
Independent journalist Mady Castigan shared a recording of her conversation with one of the organisation’s operators, who told her that the company had restricted LGBTQ+ content purchases “three weeks ago.”
A Stripe spokesperson apologised in a statement to PinkNews, saying that the information provided by its support team was “totally wrong.”
“Stripe has no prohibitions on the sale of LGBTQ+ content or goods. We’re looking into this and making sure future inquiries are answered correctly,” they continued.
Stripe’s policy on Restricted and Prohibited businesses does not explicitly ban the purchase of LGBTQ+ content from Stripe services. It does, however, ban the purchase of legal adult content through its services, including “pornography and other mature audience content.”
The company, alongside Visa and Mastercard, pressured Itch.io and Steam to remove its legal adult content after a right-wing, anti-pornography group issued an open letter demanding the companies take action over not safe for work (NSFW) video games.
The decision caused a significant backlash and concern that it could lead to the thousands of companies that use Stripe services, including Amazon and Shopify, to take similar steps.
Concerns over the safety of non-adult LGBTQ+ content have also been raised after Trans News Network heard from the developer of a safe-for-work lesbian game, who said they had been affected by Itch.io’s decision to ‘deindex’ adult games.
A spokesperson for Itch.io claimed in a Bluesky post that the article was “full of misinformation” and suggested the original author was “confused” over its deindexing policy.
