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By Allison Morrow, CNN Business

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN Business’s Nightcap newsletter. To receive it in your inbox, subscribe for free, here.

Blame the banks

OnlyFans CEO wants to set the record straight on his app’s crushing decision to ban sexually explicit content: “We had no choice, the short answer was the banks,” said Tim Stokely at the Financial Times.

In case you missed it:

Late last week, OnlyFans, a subscription-based platform that allows viewers (“fans”) to pay content creators directly for their work, made an announcement that sparked an uproar across the internet. The app would still allow nudity, but would ban “content that contains sexually explicit conduct,” that is, sexual acts.

The message was confusing: Although OnlyFans is not exclusively a porn site, it owes its success to a massive community of sex workers and artists for whom the app has become a financial lifeline during the pandemic.

The move is the result of a much broader and concerted crackdown on the internet, led in large part by payment processors like Mastercard and Visa, who behind the scenes oversee every transaction, whether you’re paying for groceries or just paying for groceries. you tip an artist on OnlyFans, writes Brian Fung of CNN Business.

In April, Mastercard implemented a series of new requirements governing adult content transactions. Platforms would be required to verify the age and identity of those who posted and were portrayed in online pornography, among other things.

The problem, according to the banks, is not prudishness. They avoid legal exposure.

THE LOWER LINE

Once again, sex workers are being sidelined as collateral damage. We couldn’t include them all here, but my colleague Sara Ashley O’Brien has spoken to several of the creators of OnlyFans about how the new rules are going to ruin their businesses.

It all comes down to the difficulty of distinguishing between consensual and legal images uploaded by entrepreneurs and illegal and abusive content uploaded by criminals. Mastercard will not stand up for the former while under pressure to sift the latter. OnlyFans may want to stand up for her creative community, but it’s also a business, and she can’t make money without processing payments.

The question for OnlyFans is whether he can survive in his decidedly less sexy new existence, or if he will become the next Tumblr. We don’t bet here on Nightcap, but if we did we would place our bets on Tumblr.

NUMBER OF THE DAY

15,000

The Bulls have officially taken the wheel on Wall Street. The Nasdaq broke the 15,000 level for the first time on Tuesday, thanks to tech stocks. The S&P 500 won also hit a new record. Now all eyes are on the Dow Jones, the most famous barometer of the Wall Street market, which is only a few hundred points from the 36,000 mark.

SAY AGAIN?

The most important vaccine in our lives received full FDA approval and with it a new brand name. Everyone, please take note of where you were, what you were doing, the smell of the air, when you first heard this official nickname. revolutionary miracle that saves lives… Comirnaty.

No really, that’s the name of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Common. I typed it at least 20 times today and still can’t figure it out.

A real brand agency proposed it, according to the specialized publication FiercePharma. The word is a mashup of “Covid-19 immunity” + “mRNA” in the middle, and is meant to evoke “community”.

It is pronounced koe-mir’-na-tee, according to the FDA.

Naturally the internet had a field day with this one.

It’s a very stupid name for a very good thing. Like when Netflix briefly rebranded itself as “Qwikster”. But I guess, gun on my head, this is the one I would choose over other names in review, which included: Covuity, RnaxCovi, Kovimerna, and RNXtract.

Honestly, I can’t wait to see the name of the Moderna vaccine. Here’s a humble idea: the Moderna vaccine. Or ModernaVax, if you want to be bold about it.

WHAT ELSE HAPPENS?

• Airbnb has pledged to provide free housing to 20,000 Afghan refugees.
• A data breach that affected dozens of businesses and agencies – including American Airlines, the Maryland Department of Health, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, among others – exposed millions of personal information to the ‘Internet public for months, according to security researchers.
• The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether Boeing employees who are supposed to report aircraft safety issues are being pressured by the company not to raise concerns. Spoiler alert: Looks like they are.
• McDonald’s has been forced to stop selling milkshakes and bottled drinks in nearly 1,300 restaurants in the UK, citing staff shortages and delays in the supply chain.

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