Visa suspends services with Pornhub's advertising arm amid concerns Pornhub monetized child sexual material

The lawsuit alleges that Pornhub violated sex-trafficking and child pornography laws by hosting and making it difficult to remove illicit materials from its pornographic video hosting website. 

Visa suspends services with Pornhub's advertising arm amid concerns Pornhub monetized child sexual material
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Visa has suspended its services with Pornhub’s advertising arm, TrafficJunky. One week after a federal judge ruled that Visa, the international payment processor, helped monetize child pornography by processing Pornhub’s transactions, the company said on Thursday it would suspend its services to the porn site’s advertising unit.

As detailed by Rebel News, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney wrote, “Visa knew that MindGeek’s websites were teeming with monetized child porn,” in the Fleites v. MindGeek lawsuit filed against Pornhub.

The lawsuit alleges that Pornhub violated sex-trafficking and child pornography laws by hosting and making it difficult to remove illicit materials from its pornographic video hosting website.

Visa condemned child sex trafficking, child sex abuse materials, and the sexual exploitation Porhub is alleged to have facilitated and asked the court to dismiss the claim that it violated a California law prohibiting false advertising and illegal business practices. Judge Carney denied the request.

Writing in a blog post, Visa CEO Alfred Kelly said the company “strongly disagrees” with Carney’s decision, Kelly said that the allegations have mischaracterized Visa’s policies and practices.

“I have been a business leader long enough to know that court cases can take years,” said Kelly. “I also recognize that it is not customary for an executive to weigh in on legal matters in advance of a final ruling. This situation, however, is different, and as CEO – and a father and grandfather –  I feel compelled to speak out.”

“At this early stage in the case, courts must accept as true all allegations made in a lawsuit – even if they are not accurate or proven,” he said. “In our view, our company’s role, policies, and practices have been mischaracterized. The allegations in this lawsuit are repugnant and stand in direct contradiction to Visa’s values and purpose.”

“Let me be clear: Visa condemns sex trafficking, sexual exploitation, and child sexual abuse,” Kelly said. “It is illegal, and Visa does not permit the use of our network for illegal activity. Our rules explicitly and unequivocally prohibit the use of our products to pay for content that depicts nonconsensual sexual behavior or child sexual abuse.”

TrafficJunky, which receives 4.6 billion daily ad impressions on the world’s top porn websites, has lost all of its privileges with Visa following the legal decision.

“Visa has longstanding rules and processes designed to uphold the integrity of our network,” the CEO wrote. “We have taken this opportunity to reiterate and reinforce our requirements with respect to legal transactions with all acquiring institutions – those institutions that bring merchants to our network and hold direct relationships with them.”

“We have made it clear that acquirers and merchants who are unable to meet our standards and requirements are not welcome on our network,” Kelly added.

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