This is Jack Conte, the CEO of Patreon and half of musical duo Pomplamoose. He knowingly profited from the distribution of paedophile bestiality fetish material, as well as sexual material related to cannibalism. Image released under CC BY-SA 2.0 for commercial use. Image by Joe Loong on Flickr. License linked here. Click for full size.
Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad) was banned from Patreon this month for comments not made on the platform. This appears to contradict Patreon’s own statements and some of its actions may arguably violate several laws including the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). That is not just an academic problem, because according to its public website Patreon has a business entity in the UK (archive) – Patreon DLC, Ltd. 8 Soho Square, London, Greater London, W1D 3QL. Sargon could (and arguably should) take action on it. Before I turn to that issue though I would like to remark upon the matter of Patreon ands its CEO Jack Conte knowingly allowing the distribution of illegal child pornography on the platform – at least until I asked VISA and MasterCard to investigate.
I first took a journalistic interest in Patreon last year in my first article and it is worth a brief recap. Lauren Southern, beautiful and extremely capable Canadian journalist had been banned for allegedly endangering the lives of refugees. Incidentally Lauren has now been vindicated – a ‘sting’ recording made on her behalf of an NGO official has proven her correct (archive). Many of the alleged ‘refugees’ were in fact fraudulent migrants facilitated by unscrupulous ‘charity’ workers who groomed them to lie. The only people endangering lives were those helping them make dangerous sea crossings to, at best, an uncertain welcome.
However, my interest arose from the illegal content available on the Patreon platform. A whistleblower sent me a link to the page of a creator called, ‘Waysin’. The page showed a number of censored and blacked out cartoon style drawings of young, underage boys and tentacles. The images were legal, but it was made clear that for a fee the user could view the images without censorship – that is pictures of clearly underage pre-teen boys being bestially raped by tentacles. Such images are criminal to produce, distribute or possess in many states, including Taiwan where the creator of the material said that he lives. For bonus points, Waysin said openly on the public page that he knew the images were illegal in his jurisdiction. Needless to say, I reported the page to Patreon. I did not view the private section – for the avoidance of doubt no unlawful images were viewed or downloaded preparing this article.
Patreon knowingly allowed a user to distribute sexual material related to children that was illegal in the jurisdiction of the user. They allowed them to literally launder the money via Patreon. This account was drawn to the attention of Patreon and Jack Conte personally, but not removed – at least until I involved executives of the payment networks. Click for full size.
The point of time when I made the report is where things become … appalling.
