Mastercard has terminated the use of its cards on the largest pornography website, Pornhub, after its own internal investigation revealed illegal content on the embattled platform.
In a statement to the Daily Caller, the credit card company said: “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 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 statement read. “In addition, we continue to investigate potential illegal content on other websites to take the appropriate action.”
The decision by Mastercard follows an op-ed written by New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, who wrote about the illicit content available on Pornhub, an issue Faithwire has been covering for quite some time.
Pornhub has been credibly accused of hosting countless videos of child sexual exploitation as well as footage of rape and coerced sexual engagement with unwitting girls and women. Laila Mickelwait, director of abolition for Exodus Cry, an advocacy organization working to end sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, has accused the website — owned by the Canada-based MindGeek — of “profiting” from “crime scenes.”
There’s factual proof to back up Mickelwait’s claims, too.
In late 2019, a man from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was arrested when investigators discovered he had uploaded nearly 60 videos of a missing, underage teenage girl to a verified account on Pornhub. Additionally, there is an ongoing warrant out for fugitive Michael Pratt, who deceived and coerced at least 22 women into performing sex acts that were then uploaded to the smut site despite deceptive promises to the contrary. He has also been accused of producing child pornography and sexually trafficking a minor.
It’s worth noting that, since the initial case against Pratt, now at least 100 women have come forward claiming to have been coerced into appearing in his sex videos.
“I think it’s something that we’ve known all along, but, right now, we have evidence of what is actually taking place,” said Mickelwait, who has led a successful online petition to have the tube site taken offline.
Terry Crews, star of the NBC show “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” as well as host of the network series “America’s Got Talent,” spoke out against Pornhub in February 2020, saying the website should be “defunded.”
Mastercard follows PayPal, which decided in November 2019 to cut ties with MindGeek properties like Pornhub. At the time, a spokesperson for Pornhub said the site was “devastated” by the decision.
In the aftermath of Kristof’s piece at The Times, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced increased pressure to take action against MindGeek, which is headquartered in Montreal.
As for Pornhub, the porn website released a statement Thursday afternoon, calling Mastercard’s decision “exceptionally disappointing.”
“This news is crushing for the hundreds of thousands of models who rely on our platform for their livelihoods,” read the statement.