The biggest platforms for artists—Pixiv, OnlyFans, and Patreon—are now the censors of artistic expression.

As of Dec 15th, Pixiv will prohibit anyone on their subscriber platform Fanbox from paying artists for guro, loli, beast, or incestuous art. What a change!

Patreon already banned these genres. OnlyFans tried to ban pornography until they realized their entire user base was pornographers. They stopped.

What is the reason for these specific bans on art?

The answer: Mastercard, VISA, Paypal, and other merchants do not want to process dirty transactions. And the art websites want their cut from every exchange between artists and buyers, so they implement whatever policies their money handlers tell them to do.

The repression of offensive arts, in spite of what people may tell you, is not about vulgarity–it’s all about the money.

The most effective way to deprive people of rights is to erode their ability to exercise them. When Whites wanted the Irish and Blacks out of their neighborhoods, they didn’t institute a ban; they simply made it hard to get a loan. When they wanted to deprive them of the vote, they didn’t stop them at the polls; they created literacy tests for them to fail.

It is dangerous to confront people and take away their voice; far safer to chip away at their rights from underneath. Hungry mouths cannot speak ugly words.

The internet is being censored through capitalism.

Corporations limit thought by making ideas they do not like too unprofitable to create. How do you get published and paid when you create art outside of the limits of payment processors and online distributors?      

You don’t. Economic feasibility is art’s gatekeeper. The people in power have learned that censorship is most effective when it’s self-imposed in pursuit of the almighty dollar. But art is not dangerous; offensive thought is not crime.      

The way to fight against this system is to show that expression is not always about how much you can earn for what you say, but of the value intrinsic in what you put out.      

And so I have decided to forego the system altogether and make available for free all my finished art.      

Life has taught me that if you work really hard to grow and succeed at something, people will see the effort and be drawn to it. People respect effort and will it to succeed.      

The only thing immortal in this world are ideas; they breathe new life each time they are passed on.

Unto you I commit this art and these words. May they spread further than money can stifle.                                                           

– ChadChan3D, Nov-27-2022