<story><title>Google refuses to reinstate account after man took medical images of son’s groin</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/google-csam-account-blocked</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>eps</author><text>Maybe in States, but not in the majority of the world. Definetly not in Europe.</text></item><item><author>dannyw</author><text>If both Visa and Mastercard refuse to deal with you, you are basically screwed in today&amp;#x27;s world.</text></item><item><author>AndrewThrowaway</author><text>Cyberpunk dystopia realized. It is not so hard to imagine a near future where corporations have much more power than states.&lt;p&gt;Imagine you do something like this in the near future. You are banned from all communications. Alpha corp. reports it to VISA corp. and all your money is confiscated. State can&amp;#x27;t help you as you do not have a way to communicate with it, don&amp;#x27;t have a way to start any legal process as you do not have a way to pay. All your daily subscriptions to housing, mobility, entertainment are cancelled and you are homeless the same day.&lt;p&gt;The only way for you to stay alive is to hike to lawless desert city of &amp;quot;Kowloon 2.1&amp;quot;. You walk by the highways observing huge OLED billboards. They show presidential elections. This time it is some adult TV reality show star competing with tanned bodybuilder.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>oarabbus_</author><text>I think the point being made is about banned by your region&amp;#x27;s major payment processing corporations, not specifically Visa or Mastercard.&lt;p&gt;Any statement about a &amp;quot;majority of the world&amp;quot; would need to apply to India, China, and the African continent to be true. In China being banned from Alipay or similar would presumably have the same or even worse effect. India&amp;#x27;s attempt to go cashless some years back disproportionately affected those without plastic or digital payment cards, further emphasizing the point.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know too much about payment systems in Africa but my understanding is that mobile payment services have been heavily adopted and if a major payment corporation in the region banned an individual it would have a drastic negative effect on their livelihood. If corporate-issued payment devices are easy to do without in Europe it would seem to be the exception, not the rule.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google refuses to reinstate account after man took medical images of son’s groin</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/google-csam-account-blocked</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>eps</author><text>Maybe in States, but not in the majority of the world. Definetly not in Europe.</text></item><item><author>dannyw</author><text>If both Visa and Mastercard refuse to deal with you, you are basically screwed in today&amp;#x27;s world.</text></item><item><author>AndrewThrowaway</author><text>Cyberpunk dystopia realized. It is not so hard to imagine a near future where corporations have much more power than states.&lt;p&gt;Imagine you do something like this in the near future. You are banned from all communications. Alpha corp. reports it to VISA corp. and all your money is confiscated. State can&amp;#x27;t help you as you do not have a way to communicate with it, don&amp;#x27;t have a way to start any legal process as you do not have a way to pay. All your daily subscriptions to housing, mobility, entertainment are cancelled and you are homeless the same day.&lt;p&gt;The only way for you to stay alive is to hike to lawless desert city of &amp;quot;Kowloon 2.1&amp;quot;. You walk by the highways observing huge OLED billboards. They show presidential elections. This time it is some adult TV reality show star competing with tanned bodybuilder.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dalbasal</author><text>There are plenty of European parts where you cannot rent a car or book a hotel without visa or mastercard.&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, for a business, either of these refusing to work with you will likely kill the business on the spot.&lt;p&gt;The differences between Europe and US corporatism is petty narcissism of small differences.</text></comment>