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(LifeSiteNews) — Visa and Mastercard banned use of their credit cards on advertising overseen by MindGeek, the parent company of the pornography website Pornhub.
On August 4, Visa announced the decision to suspend ad purchases on the porn site amid an ongoing lawsuit against Visa for allegedly assisting in the distribution of child pornography.
“Let me be clear: Visa condemns sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, and child sexual abuse,” Visa chairman and CEO Alfred F. Kelly Jr. said in an August 4 statement. “It is illegal, and Visa does not permit the use of our network for illegal activity.”
“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,” he added. “Despite what you may have read in recent days, you cannot use your Visa card on Pornhub.
The statement further banned Visa card holders from purchasing from ads featuring TrafficJunky, MindGeek’s advertising arm.
“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,” Kelly said.
“Visa can be used only at MindGeek studio sites that feature adult professional actors in legal adult entertainment,” he added.
Similarly, CNBC reported Mastercard plans to suspend cardholders from purchasing from ads on TrafficJunky after the court ruling.
“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,” a statement from Mastercard read. “This step will further enforce our December 2020 decision to terminate the use of our products on that site.”
The decision comes after a California judge ruled Friday to deny Visa’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit by a woman claiming Visa knowingly assisted in distributing child pornography on Pornhub and other sites operated by MindGeek.
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney of the Central District of California in Santa Ana ruled Visa continued to recognize MindGeek as a merchant despite allegedly knowing about child porn produced by MindGeek.
In 2020, Mastercard and Visa promised to block payments to Pornhub after a New York Times exposé of videos featuring underage rape and abuse.
After the expose, MindGeek underwent a legislative inquiry in Canada before facing a $500 million class-action lawsuit.