Payments giant Mastercard is considering banning people from spending their money at Pornhub.
Mastercard is reviewing its business with pornography platform Pornhub, following a campaign against the website being highlighted by the New York
Times.
Mastercard responded after reporter Nicholas Kristof said he didn't see why search engines, banks or credit-card companies should bolster Pornhub.
Pornhub is free to use but users can pay £9.99 a month for higher-quality video
streams and advert-free and exclusive content.
Visa followed Mastercard's lead and said that it too won't allow Pornhub users to use their credit cards to make charges on the adult content site. Visa said in a statement:
We are instructing the financial institutions who serve MindGeek to
suspend processing of payments through the Visa network.
And according to Bloomberg.com, Mastercard said it's continuing to investigate potential illegal content on other websites, most likely XVideos.
At Pornhub, the safety of our community is our top priority. Last week, we enacted the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history. We banned unverified uploaders from posting new
content, eliminated downloads, and partnered with dozens of non-profit organizations, among other major policy changes (please read here for more details).
As part of our policy to ban unverified uploaders, we have now also
suspended all previously uploaded content that was not created by content partners or members of the Model Program. This means every piece of Pornhub content is from verified uploaders, a requirement that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,
YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter have yet to institute.
Leading non-profit organizations and advocacy groups acknowledge our efforts to date at combating illegal content have been effective. Over the last three years, Facebook
self-reported 84 million instances of child sexual abuse material. During that same period, the independent, third-party Internet Watch Foundation reported 118 incidents on Pornhub. That is still 118 too many, which is why we are committed to taking
every necessary action.
It is clear that Pornhub is being targeted not because of our policies and how we compare to our peers, but because we are an adult content platform. The two groups that have spearheaded the campaign
against our company are the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (formerly known as Morality in Media) and Exodus Cry/TraffickingHub. These are organizations dedicated to abolishing pornography, banning material they claim is obscene, and shutting down
commercial sex work. These are the same forces that have spent 50 years demonizing Playboy, the National Endowment for the Arts, sex education, LGBTQ rights, women's rights, and even the American Library Association. Today, it happens to be Pornhub.
In today's world, all social media platforms share the responsibility to combat illegal material. Solutions must be driven by real facts and real experts. We hope we have demonstrated our dedication to leading by example.
Payments giant Mastercard is considering banning people from spending their money at Pornhub. 
Visa followed Mastercard's lead and said that it too won't allow Pornhub users to use their credit cards to make charges on the adult content site. Visa said in a statement: 
