Kickstarter Reverts Mature Content Rules After 1 Week, Citing Stripe Pressure and User Backlash
Updated
Updated · The Verge · May 19
Kickstarter Reverts Mature Content Rules After 1 Week, Citing Stripe Pressure and User Backlash
4 articles · Updated · The Verge · May 19
Kickstarter scrapped the mature-content rules it introduced last week and restored its previous guidelines, with COO Sean Leow saying the company had "botched it."
Stripe drove the original changes, Kickstarter said, after a growing number of approved campaigns were suspended by the payment processor in the middle of fundraising.
The withdrawn policy had barred some sexual-wellness products not designed for insertion or penetration, but Kickstarter declined to further define the line between sexual wellness and sexual gratification after reversing course.
Kickstarter said creators and users objected "loud and clear," and the company is now going back to the drawing board while pressing Stripe for more flexibility, clarity and consistency.
Even with the rollback, Stripe's own restrictions on sexually explicit materials still leave Kickstarter creators at risk of having approved campaigns cut off mid-funding.
Are payment giants like Stripe becoming the internet's true content censors, making platform policies meaningless?
As financial firms reject 'high-risk' creators, is the internet's counterculture spirit being quietly erased?