Porn star Cherie DeVille said in an interview with Matt Taibbi released Wednesday that credit card companies are responsible for heavy censorship and wield tons of power as controversy stirs around major credit card companies’ decision to pull out of Russia.
DeVille explained how Visa and Mastercard control collectively 98% of credit transactions in the United Kingdom, 80% in the European Union and more than 70% in the U.S., meaning porn stars are forced to comply with rigid restrictions if they want to get paid.
“Women are allowed to squirt, but we’re not allowed to urinate,” DeVille told Taibbi. “We can’t insert our panties into our vaginas anymore, because that’s an object. I tried to use a carrot-shaped dildo. That’s a problem because that’s an object, too, but a phallic-shaped dildo is apparently okay. … The rules are completely nonsensical.”
“If you limit yourself to a box of people all saying the shit you already agree with, you don’t live in the real world.” @CherieDeVille https://t.co/nE1OXBF6Uk
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 9, 2022
She also said that the rules don’t apply evenly to everyone.
“All of us sex workers trying to advertise on these platforms would abide by whatever rules they decide to put on us, but they don’t apply those rules evenly,” DeVille reportedly said. “We’re specifically targeted, removed, and/or shadow-banned from these platforms where our mainstream counterparts are also selling sex on the same platforms.”
DeVille told Taibbi it’s hypocritical that companies like HBO and Netflix air shows sexualizing children but sex workers are vilified for certain content. She also said regardless of “whether or not you agree with sex work as a profession, the precedent of our financial institutions having any control over freedom of speech, or becoming more important than laws and government, I think is a red flag in a variety of ways across the board that really have nothing to do with porn or adult content.”
But DeVille warned that the larger issue is the slippery slope consumers are headed down. (RELATED: Canada Puts Crowd Funding Platforms Under ‘Terrorist Funding’ Law Amid Efforts To Stop Trucker ‘Freedom Convoy’)
“The general public should freak out that Mastercard now controls what they can and cannot watch,” DeVille wrote in a piece published last year. “Today, they’re regulating porn, but what if they start deeming what cinema and books we consume?”
Visa and Mastercard recently announced their decision to suspend operations in Russia, with Mastercard saying in a statement cards issued by Russian banks “will no longer be supported by the Mastercard network.”
“We don’t take this decision lightly,” the company added.
Visa also released a statement saying the company was “compelled to act following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed.”
“We regret the impact this will have on our valued colleagues, and on the clients, partners, merchants and cardholders we serve in Russia. This war and the ongoing threat to peace and stability demand we respond in line with our values,” the statement continued.