Agreed, but why do they move in lockstep? Is it a conspiracy among elite banks (or whatever other businesses)? Or is it a rational response to their political vulnerability? Or something else?
It's a rational response to the extreme social, political, financial and potentially criminal risks associated with profiting off content that may be identified as child pornography or sexual assault.
The Traci Lords case is a good illustration of this. One day everything is order, the next somebody realizes she used a fake ID and bam, everybody involved is suddenly manufacturing/profiting off/in possession of child pornography. Add in the massively lowered bar for OnlyFans/PornHub, where anybody with a phone can now DIY, and it's a legal minefield.
Nobody makes these kinds of arguments about why payment processors are afraid of Ebay selling potentially stolen goods or Amazon selling (lots of) potentially counterfeit merchandise. Or rather, they don't have to, because payment processors are perfectly willing to turn a blind eye to those kinds of crime. And before you say it's about risk to children, the global market is perfectly willing to do business with companies that continually have child slavery scandals.
Yes, there are legal risks involved, but at the end of the day, the main reason why sex work gets hit so much harder than any other type of legal enterprise is because the people in charge see nothing to be gained by standing up for sex workers.
