Pixiv, the Japanese image hosting site for artists has announced that users in the United States and United Kingdom will be unable to see NSFW R18 rated images.

Pixiv has had problems in recent months due to increasing pressure from payment processors to censor NSFW content they don’t like. This has led to users fleeing sites like Patreon for safer alternatives like SubscribeStar.

Now it seems Pixiv’s latest step is to ban users located in the US or UK. Luckily, this ban will only apply to users who self-identify as being in those regions and users can presumably just change their location in account settings. Failing that, a proxy is likely to work.

Starting from April 25th, 2024, a new section (“Restrictions on unacceptable content to comply with regional laws”) has been added to the pixiv Terms of Use.

This change only affects users whose Country/Region is set to the US or UK.

Other users will not be affected by this change in Terms of Use.

Please read more about this change below.

Most recently, Japanese doujin site DLSite announced they would be blocking western payment processors rather than adopt censorship policies.

Previously, Pixiv tried adopting new content policies, as well as restricting what content can be monetized via fanbox; each adjustment has led to stricter control from payment processors such as Visa and Mastercard. It’s unclear if Pixiv’s policy adjustments will stop here.