Kickstarter bans adult content under Stripe pressure

Payment processors are increasingly acting as the internet's moral gatekeepers, forcing platforms to sanitize content or risk losing their financial infrastructure.

• –The ban specifically prohibits "implied sex acts" and "female nipples," leaving no room for the artistic nudes or pin-ups previously core to the platform's comics category.
• –Stripe's new power to conduct independent project reviews creates a "Sword of Damocles" for creators, who risk losing funding even after a campaign succeeds.
• –AI-driven "romantic companions" are explicitly barred, signaling a crackdown on the growing niche of generative AI relationship apps.
• –The "anti-evasion" clause ensures that censoring or blurring images won't save a project from suspension, forcing creators to either sanitize their work or exit the platform.