We finally know what's going on with R18 first hand. SexLikeReal, a VR porn site, has explained it
on Reddit. They're under attack too:
"I will be perfectly blunt and honest with the community about what is happening: One major credit card in particular is cracking down
hard across the globe on various "high risk" industries. I'm sure most users on this sub are already familiar with Japanese megasite R18. Well they got cut off from this credit card because too many Japanese videos break the rules. They lost half their international revenue overnight and a chunk of their domestic revenue as a result.
What are the rules? That's a great question and as soon as we know them for sure we'll tell you. But they won't tell us, either. They give some rough guidelines but they're incredibly vague and written in such a way that they basically retain the right to interpret anything how they prefer.
This is not unique to us and it effects other companies that produce and / or distribute content as well, but the enforcement is just as patchy as the rules. We can post a video that feels edgy and taboo one day, and then the next day we receive an e-mail from someone outside the company needing an explanation about the bottle of wine on the table in one of the scenes. A scene not only needs to be completely legal, it needs to
look completely legal. OnlyFans, a site invented for sexy people to build a community of content followers, briefly just said "fuck it" to porn as a whole. Even YouTube is tightening down rules on all kinds of content and demonetizing channels across the board in categories like gambling and talking about drug use. Even educational material.
This is one of those hazards that's hard to avoid as a multi-national company working across financial regulations and legal hurdles around the globe.
We are radically against censorship, but we are also powerless here. If it were actually a legal fight we might be able to do more, but if a credit card or payment processor doesn't want to do business with you, there's little you can do.
Pornhub was publicly slashed to ribbons in the media for uploads that we all know they did everything in their power to stop. The same just happened to R18. These are some of the largest sites in the world, and SLR is the largest VR porn site. When the pressure came down for us (as I can almost promise it will come for all adult sites) SLR could have made sweeping, fast fixes. And at first we did by rapidly deactivating anything even remotely controversial, and then we started watching them - individually tagging problem frames, timestaps, and videos. We go through our content and the content of EVERY studio that uploads. By the way - did you know we're hiring? We could use the help. :-D
We sincerely hope this is only a speed bump because we're staunchly against censorship, but we don't just want to tell the community why we've had to make new restrictions, we want to get the message out to other content creators: now is the time to be cautious and careful. The morality police already knocked on Pornhub's door, R18's door, and our door. Those are some of the biggest houses in the neighborhood, sure, but there are a lot of houses to go and they've got plenty of time to get to them."
