Mastercard Terminates Use of Pornhub After Discovering ‘Illegal Material’ on Platform
Mary Margaret Olohan /
Mastercard has terminated the use of its cards on Pornhub, Mastercard told The Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday.
“Today, the use of our cards at Pornhub is being terminated,” Mastercard said in a statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “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 credit card company continued. “In addition, we continue to investigate potential illegal content on other websites to take the appropriate action.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof accused Pornhub in a Dec. 4 New York Times op-ed of monetizing “child rapes, revenge pornography, spycam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags.”
Pornhub did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
.@Mastercard has just informed me that they are terminating the use of their cards on Pornhub
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) December 10, 2020
Kristof tweeted Thursday that Mastercard “confirmed the presence of illegal material on Pornhub, so it is immediately ending Mastercard use on Pornhub.”
“It will also address the issue on other websites,” Kristof tweeted. “This wouldn’t have happened without survivors bravely speaking up.”
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
Visa, which also said this week that it is investigating its relationship with Pornhub, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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