Joshua Moon, the owner of Kiwi Farms, has faced significant challenges with banks and credit card payment processing companies due to the controversial nature of his website. Kiwi Farms is widely known as an online forum that has been implicated in coordinating harassment campaigns, doxing, and trolling, often targeting vulnerable individuals, including minorities and members of the LGBTQ community. This reputation has led to a series of deplatforming efforts by various service providers, including financial institutions.
The primary reason for Moon's bans from banks and payment processors appears to be the association of Kiwi Farms with activities that violate the terms of service or acceptable use policies of these companies. Many financial institutions and payment processors, such as Mastercard, Visa, and PayPal, have strict rules against supporting platforms that facilitate illegal activities, harassment, or hate speech. While Moon has argued that his site is a free speech platform, critics and service providers have pointed to specific instances where Kiwi Farms users have engaged in behavior that crosses legal and ethical lines—such as doxing, swatting, and sharing pirated or infringing content. These actions have been linked to real-world harm, including suicides and violent incidents, further amplifying the pressure on companies to distance themselves from Kiwi Farms.
For example, after repeated terminations by payment providers, Moon set up a separate donation site, lolcow.us, to obscure his payment processor. However, this too was shut down when Mastercard terminated the merchant account following reports of compliance violations and suspicions of illegal activity, such as potential credit card fraud or money laundering risks tied to the site’s operations. Terminated merchants are often added to the MATCH (Member Alert to Control High-Risk Merchants) list maintained by Mastercard and Visa, making it extremely difficult for individuals like Moon to secure new payment processing services for years. This blacklist effect likely contributes to his ongoing struggles with financial institutions.
Additionally, public campaigns, such as the #DropKiwiFarms movement led by activists like Clara Sorrenti, have pressured companies to cut ties with Kiwi Farms. These efforts have successfully convinced hosting services, security providers like Cloudflare, and financial entities to reevaluate their relationships with Moon’s site. Banks and payment processors, as private entities, prioritize risk management and public reputation, and associating with a site like Kiwi Farms—accused of enabling harassment and even terrorism-related threats—poses significant legal, financial, and PR risks.
Moon’s own actions have compounded these issues. His refusal to comply with takedown requests (e.g., for copyrighted material, as seen in the Greer v. Moon copyright case) and his public defiance toward law enforcement and service providers—such as his response to New Zealand authorities after the Christchurch shooting—have painted him as a high-risk client. This behavior, combined with the site’s notoriety, makes it unsurprising that banks and payment processors have banned him, viewing Kiwi Farms as a liability not worth supporting.
In summary, Joshua Moon’s bans stem from Kiwi Farms’ reputation for facilitating harassment and illegal activities, violating payment processor policies, and triggering public and legal backlash, all of which make him an undesirable client for financial institutions seeking to avoid risk and controversy.
