Major credit card companies announced they will block payments to Pornhub following allegations that the pornography website profits off sexual exploitation.
Both Visa and Mastercard told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Thursday that they are no longer allowing their cards to be used on Pornhub.
Mastercard said it had terminated the use of its cards on Pornhub, while Visa said it has temporarily suspended payments to the site “pending the completion of our ongoing investigation.”
American Express told The Associated Press this week that company policy prohibits its card from being used on “digital adult content websites.”
“Today, the use of our cards at Pornhub is being terminated,” Mastercard said in a statement to the DCNF. “Our investigation over the past several days has confirmed violations of our standards prohibiting unlawful content on their site.”
“As a result, and in accordance with our policies, we instructed the financial institutions that connect the site to our network to terminate acceptance. In addition, we continue to investigate potential illegal content on other websites to take the appropriate action.”
Visa told the DCNF that it is “instructing the financial institutions who serve [Pornhub owner] 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 company said.
Paypal terminated its relationship with Pornhub in November 2019, according to the New York Post.
Pornhub’s vice president Corey Price said at the time that Paypal’s departure did “nothing but harm efforts to end discrimination and stigma towards sex workers.”
The backlash has been swift after opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof accused Pornhub in a Friday New York Times Op-Ed of monetizing “child rapes, revenge pornography, spycam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags.”
Pornhub quickly announced changes to its safety measures following the report, saying it had banned downloads and “made some key expansions to our moderation process.”
Kristof’s Op-Ed prompted Republican Sen. Ben Sasse to call for a federal investigation into Pornhub.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley on Wednesday introduced a bill allowing victims of sexual abuse and exploitation to sue the popular pornography website.
Pornhub did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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