Major Porn Site Suffers Tremendous Blow

Following years of child abuse and sex trafficking allegations, one of the world’s largest pornography websites is suffering major consequences.

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Over the past couple of years, Pornhub has repeatedly made headlines. First, there was the case of the 15-year-old girl who was rescued after nearly sixty videos of her sexual abuse was uploaded to Pornhub.

Then there was the discovery of videos featuring a 14-year-old who had been brutally kidnapped, raped, and stabbed.

Related Article: Major Porn Site Fails to Protect Known Victims

And in another incident, a 27-year-old uploaded pornographic content featuring a 16-year-old. While they appear to be isolated incidents, they’re not. Story after story has emerged outlining the depravity found on Pornhub. Finally, legislators and entire companies are taking action.

Taking Action Against Pornhub

PayPal cut ties with Pornhub in 2019. A petition began circulating on the internet in February 2020, calling for Pornhub to be shut down.

Furthermore, the petition seeks to hold executives accountable for their role in human trafficking. And in March 2020, Republican Senator Ben Sasses of Nebraska took action. He called upon the U.S. Department of Justice to formally open an investigation of Pornhub. In his letter, he stated:

“Pornhub’s incredible reach has a much darker side than the image of harmless fun that it tries to project. In several notable incidents over the past year, Pornhub made content available worldwide showing women and girls that were victims of trafficking being raped and exploited.”

Related Article: Senator Asks DOJ to Investigate PornHub for Allegedly Streaming Videos of Rape Victims

At the time, Pornhub merely shrugged their shoulders at the allegations. They continued to allow users, including unverified users, to upload millions of pornographic videos and images. In light of COVID-19, they even prided themselves on ease of access to those stuck in quarantine. But as Jesus cautioned in Luke 8:17:

“There is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.”

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Pornhub Faces Financial Setback

On December 4, the New York Times published an article accusing Pornhub of hosting videos that featured child abuse and non-consensual sexual behavior. Pornhub is refuting the allegations. In fact, despite the number of news headlines in recent years, Pornhub claims to have a zero-tolerance of child sexual abuse material. Though citing no wrongdoing, Pornhub did remove more than 75% of their content. It wasn’t enough. Following the publication of the New York Times article, several companies still chose to take action.

Mastercard immediately opened an investigation. Within days, they determined that the accusations were substantial. As a result, they issued the following statement: “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.”

Both Visa and Discover also decided to take action.

Discover made the decision to cut ties with Pornhub, citing the prohibition of activities that violate their operating standards. They released this statement, “When Discover determines merchants are offering prohibited activity, we promptly terminate card acceptance through the offending merchant’s financial institution.”

Visa’s investigation is ongoing, but they have suspended the use of their cards at this time. In a statement made to CNN Business, Visa shared, “Given the allegations of illegal activity, Visa is suspending Pornhub’s acceptance privileges pending the completion of our ongoing investigation. We are instructing the financial institutions who serve MindGeek (the parent company to Pornhub) to suspend processing of payments through the Visa network.”

Celebrating a Victory

Advocates seeking to end sexual exploitation, such as the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), have been putting pressure on these companies to cut ties with Pornhub for quite some time. On February 6, 2020, Visa was added to NCOSE’s Dirty Dozen List for 2020.

Related Article: 2020 List Exposes Corporations Who Contribute to Sexual Exploitation

This list, released annually since 2013, calls out the top companies who are either profiting from or facilitating sexual exploitation. The goal is to raise awareness of these actions, empowering individuals to raise their voices. By collaborating together, individuals and NCOSE have been successful in encouraging major companies to implement policy improvements.

Following the decisions made by Mastercard, Visa, and Discover, NCOSE shared that this was “the right decision to finally cut ties with a profiteer of rape.”