- Most major credit card companies have announced they will block payments to Pornhub following allegations that the pornography website profits from sexual exploitation on its platform.
- Both Visa and Mastercard told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday that they are not allowing their cards to be used on the website.
- “This news is crushing for the hundreds of thousands of models who rely on our platform for their livelihoods,” Pornhub told the DCNF.
Most major credit card companies have announced they will block payments to Pornhub following allegations that the pornography website profits from sexual exploitation on its platform.
Both Visa and Mastercard told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday that they are not allowing their cards to be used on the website. Mastercard said it had terminated the use of it’s cards, while Visa said it has at least temporarily suspended processing payments to Pornhub “pending the completion of our ongoing investigation.”
“These actions are exceptionally disappointing, as they come just two days after Pornhub instituted the most far-reaching safeguards in user-generated platform history,” Pornhub said in a statement to the DCNF, noting that it had “banned downloads” and “made some key expansions to [its] moderation process.”
American Express told the Associated Press this week that the company’s policy prohibits the Amex card from usage on “digital adult content websites.”
Mastercard told the DCNF that it had conducted an investigation that “confirmed violations of our standards prohibiting unlawful content” on Pornhub. (RELATED: Hawley, Lawmakers Introduce Bills Allowing Victims To Sue Pornhub, Perpetrators)
“As a result, and in accordance with our policies, we instructed the financial institutions that connect the site to our network to terminate acceptance,” Mastercard said in a statement. “In addition, we continue to investigate potential illegal content on other websites to take the appropriate action.”
.@Mastercard has just informed me that they are terminating the use of their cards on Pornhub
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) December 10, 2020
After multiple requests for comment from the DCNF following Mastercard’s Thursday announcement, Visa told the DCNF that it is “instructing the financial institutions who serve MindGeek to suspend processing of payments through the Visa network. ”
“At Visa, we are vigilant in our efforts to stamp out illegal activity on our network, and we encourage our financial institution partners to regularly review their merchants’ compliance of our standards on this and other platforms,” the credit card company told the DCNF.
Paypal previously terminated its relationships with the massive pornography website in November 2019, according to the New York Post.
“Following a review, we have discovered that PornHub has made certain business payments through PayPal without seeking our permission,” Paypal told the Post. “We have taken action to stop these transactions from occurring.”
Pornhub’s vice president Corey Price said that Paypal’s departure did “nothing but harm efforts to end discrimination and stigma towards sex workers.”
Pornhub announced changes to their website’s safety measures Tuesday afternoon, saying that the website had “banned downloads” and “made some key expansions to [its] moderation process.” (RELATED: Sasse Demands Full Investigation After Pornhub Rapidly Changes Policies Over Allegations Of Child Sexual Exploitation)
Pulitzer prize-winning opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof accused Pornhub of monetizing “child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags,” in a Friday New York Times op-ed.
The popular pornography website has been listed as the 10th-most-visited website in the world, with 3.5 billion visits a month and profits from almost three billion ad impressions every day, according to Kristof.
Kristof’s story sparked backlash against Pornhub, prompting lawmakers like Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse to call for investigations into the pornography website.