Visa and Mastercard on Thursday temporarily halted card payments for ads across Pornhub and parent company MindGeek after a lawsuit raised questions around the role of payment processors in facilitating the distribution of child pornography, according to Yahoo Finance.
Visa and Mastercard stopped allowing payments on Pornhub in December 2020 following a New York Times report by columnist Nicholas Kristof that alleged the pornographic website showed videos of child abuse and sexual assault. However, the payments processors continued to allow card payments for ad purchases.
„We will suspend TrafficJunky’s Visa acceptance privileges based on the court’s decision until further notice,” he said. „During this suspension, Visa cards will not be able to be used to purchase advertising on any sites including Pornhub or other MindGeek affiliated sites.” – Visa CEO Al Kelly said in a statement.
Mastercard followed suit in suspending the use of its cards at TrafficJunky shortly after Visa’s decision.
„We are directing financial institutions to suspend acceptance of our products at TrafficJunky,” says Mastercard in a press release.
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Visa’s statement
On Friday, July 29, a federal court issued a decision in ongoing litigation involving MindGeek, the owner of Pornhub and other websites. In this pre-trial decision, the court denied Visa’s motion to be removed from the case on a theory that Visa was complicit in MindGeek’s actions because Visa payment cards were used to pay for advertising on MindGeek sites, among other claims. We strongly disagree with this decision and are confident in our position.
I have been a business leader long enough to know that court cases can take years. I also recognize that it is not customary for an executive to weigh in on legal matters in advance of a final ruling. This situation, however, is different, and as CEO – and a father and grandfather – I feel compelled to speak out.
At this early stage in the case, courts must accept as true all allegations made in a lawsuit – even if they are not accurate or proven. In our view, our company’s role, policies, and practices have been mischaracterized. The allegations in this lawsuit are repugnant and stand in direct contradiction to Visa’s values and purpose.
Let me be clear: Visa condemns sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, and child sexual abuse. It is illegal, and Visa does not permit the use of our network for illegal activity. Our rules explicitly and unequivocally prohibit the use of our products to pay for content that depicts nonconsensual sexual behavior or child sexual abuse. We are vigilant in our efforts to deter this and other illegal activity on our network. Moreover, we require Visa’s financial institution clients, which maintain the direct relationships with merchants, to assure and attest to merchants’ compliance with our standards.
With respect to MindGeek specifically, we suspended sites that contained user-generated content in December 2020 and acceptance on those sites has not been reinstated. Despite what you may have read in recent days, you cannot use your Visa card on Pornhub.
The legal decision, with which we disagree, has also created new uncertainty about the role of TrafficJunky, MindGeek’s advertising arm. Accordingly, we will suspend TrafficJunky’s Visa acceptance privileges based on the court’s decision until further notice. During this suspension, Visa cards will not be able to be used to purchase advertising on any sites including Pornhub or other MindGeek affiliated sites.
Visa has longstanding rules and processes designed to uphold the integrity of our network. We have taken this opportunity to reiterate and reinforce our requirements with respect to legal transactions with all acquiring institutions – those institutions that bring merchants to our network and hold direct relationships with them. We have made it clear that acquirers and merchants who are unable to meet our standards and requirements are not welcome on our network.
It is Visa’s policy to follow the law of every country in which we do business. We do not make moral judgments on legal purchases made by consumers, and we respect the rightful role of lawmakers to make decisions about what is legal and what is not. Accordingly, Visa can be used only at MindGeek studio sites that feature adult professional actors in legal adult entertainment.
As I’ve said, Friday’s news concerned a pre-trial decision before Visa has presented any evidence. We look forward to shining a light onto the lengths Visa goes to ensure the integrity of our people and network.
Mastercard’s statement
„New facts from last week’s court ruling made us aware of advertising revenue outside of our view that appears to provide Pornhub with indirect funding. This step will further enforce our December 2020 decision to terminate the use of our products on that site.
We are reminding these same institutions of their obligations to ensure any adult content website they support must adhere to our standards requiring controls to monitor, block and remove unlawful content from being posted. These standards also demand confirmation of age and consent from anyone in content published on these sites.
We have zero tolerance for illegal activity on our network. We will continue to follow this case and take further action, as necessary.”
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Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
