In a severe blow to the free porn site operated by MindGeek, the two leading financial services corporations announced they are prohibiting the use of their cards on Pornhub following a scathing report from The New York Times.
As The Sword reported earlier this week, Pornhub is facing major backlash following an opinion piece from The New York Times that claimed the adult site was profiting off of videos of child rape, revenge pornography, spy cam videos, racist and , and more. As writer Nicholas Kristof wrote, the videos were uploaded by users and never moderated or policed by Pornhub, who continued to them over the years: “In each case, offenders were arrested for the assaults, but Pornhub escaped responsibility for sharing the videos and profiting from them.”
Pornhub quickly announced new policies, like prohibiting downloads and only allowing content partners and people within its Model Program to upload content. But that was too little, too late for many. Shortly after the report, Visa and Mastercard announced they would investigate their financial links to MindGeek (PayPal barred Pornhub payments last year).
Then yesterday, both companies announced they would no longer allow their cards to be used as payments on Pornhub (Mastercard announced a termination of payments, while Visa announced a suspension pending further investigation). Mastercard also announced it would be investigating potential standards violations on other sites.
In a statement, Pornhub called the moves “exceptionally disappointing” and noted that “This news is crushing for the hundreds of thousands of models who rely on our platform for their livelihoods.”
Kristof, meanwhile, was encouraged by the news:
The Mastercard statement: “Today, the use of our cards at Pornhub is being terminated. Our investigation over the past several days has confirmed violations of our standards prohibiting unlawful content…. we continue to investigate potential illegal content on other websites.”
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) December 10, 2020
Following Pornhub’s announced changes (but before Visa and Mastercard announced their decisions), Kristof provided a new article, An Uplifting Update, on the Terrible World of Pornhub to continue the conversation. In it, he mentions the bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday by senators Josh Hawley, Maggie Hassan, Joni Ernst and Thom Tillis. The legislation would make it easier for rape victims to sue porn companies that profit from videos of their assaults.
As Kristof also writes, “Another senator, Jeff Merkley, is separately drafting bipartisan legislation to regulate such companies more rigorously, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada (which is home to Pornhub) said Tuesday that his government was developing new regulations for these platforms as well.”
And while Kristof was encouraged by Pornhub’s announced changes, he also wrote that “we should all be suitably skeptical. Fake I.D.’s abound, and in September a Tuscaloosa man was charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in videos that he posted on his verified Pornhub account. And even if there is no download button, it is still possible to download using other methods.”
What effect do you think this will ultimately have on Pornhub? How crushing can it be for some models? How could this permanently alter porn on the internet?
This is just another attack on free speech. People who don’t view or profit from pornography feel that no one should be able to view it. These reports are likely fabricated since there were no details of where these videos were supposedly from. All other sites will be attacked next. If there were choices, I would suspend use of VISA and MasterCard for these decisions. Accessing a site that may have illegal content does not mean that I viewed or uploaded illegal content. This is no different than changing a law to state that because some people continue to drive 20 mph over the speed limit on the Interstate that the speed limit will be lowered by 20 mph.
Looking at Nicholas Kristof’s tweets, it’s clear to see that he is a censorious, Left-wing Communist, China Biden loving moron. The sort of person that progressive LGBTQIA+ cream their pants over. They get everything they deserve.
Sadly America is getting more and more ‘communistic’ and restrictive on our personal freedoms. As I recall 3 years ago Tumbler started banning ‘sexually explicit’ content in their effort to satisfy the so called ‘moral police’. Where does this restriction BULLSHIT end? For those who endorse this, let ’em move to china or russia or any of the other ‘socialist or communist’ utopias where there’s no freedom of any kind, much less speech and leave the rest of us in America alone with our freedoms .. As for the credit card companies, ask where they stand on this issue, having restrictions where their credit cards can be used. Most would say ‘who cares’, we really don’t give a rats ass as long as the activities ‘re legal and last I heard, pornography ‘s legal.
since they cut the downloads, i am not visiting the site anymore
I love how “child rape” and “racist & misogynist” are thrown together like one isn’t a real physical harm and the other isn’t completely someone’s opinion.
In the last post I mentioned the problem of politically acceptable sexual censorship. Should I just call it PASC?
The issue is NOT a true desire to protect victims and the weak. It’s just a different kind of kink: hurting innocent people politically or legally.
The only thing PornHub can do is what it has already done. This will officially become a witch hunt against all sites who have ever allowed any child rape (or misogyny) on their websites.
Fight the Karens NOW or lose your sexual expression for a generation.
I’ve seen gay slurs, racist slurs, horrible descriptions of people. And not only on Pornhub. The other tube sites are just as guilty. No reason to use “homo”;0r “fa’””ot in describing a scene. They also use racist slurs. And consistently use the term “interracial” when both models are white or one is Spanish, Italian or Greek. Since when are nationalities races? Thefew times I’ve inadvertently landed on straight or transsexual porn, the slurs against women or transsexuals are just as disgusting.
Why are these companies being swayed by all this fake news.
They took a right step in cracking down on content. But they need to get a good lawyer who specializes in suing the financial companies in court. The card companies are just as bad as sites like PH. They have a habit of lending money to money launderers. Bad banking investments, like the ones during the last recession in 2007-08.
Yes!! This!!
How is this crushing for models? Models and content producers SHOULD NOT NOR EVER be in the business of creating or even distributing rape and underage non consenting material, let alone revenge, misogynistic, spy cam or even racist porn. If they do, “lock ’em up.”
I think they were referring to the cancellation of payment methods for the “models” customers?
Basically they would not cover the payment if you use your card for this porn site and its affiliates. But they themselves are guilty of poor conduct when the economy tanks due to their poor banking decisions. From housing loans to derivatives. They were part of the problem in the last recession when people bought homes they could not afford.