Bulletins

Mastercard, Visa cut off Pornhub

The decisions come after an investigation by the New York Times into Pornhub's content moderation practices.

Mastercard, Visa cut off Pornhub

Mastercard and Visa were both payment partners of Pornhub.

Image: Mastercard

Mastercard and Visa will no longer process payments to Pornhub, spokespersons confirmed to Protocol.

The developments come after an investigation by the New York Times found that the porn site allowed users to upload adult videos with minors, among other troubling allegations.

"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," the company said in an emailed statement.

Mastercard will also investigate whether its cards are used to support "potential illegal content" on other websites.

In an emailed statement, Visa said the recent allegations of illegal activity led to the company "suspending Pornhub's acceptance privileges pending the completion of our ongoing investigation."

"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," Visa said.

Joe Williams

Joe Williams is a writer-at-large at Protocol. He previously covered enterprise software for Protocol, Bloomberg and Business Insider. Joe can be reached at JoeWilliams@Protocol.com. To share information confidentially, he can also be contacted on a non-work device via Signal (+1-309-265-6120) or JPW53189@protonmail.com.

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