Visa and Mastercard say they are no longer allowing their cards to be used on Pornhub, a website owned by the Montreal-based company Mindgeek amid concerns about allegedly illegal material on the site.
The decisions from the major credit card companies come as Pornhub remains under fire following a report by the New York Times last week that alleged the website has videos of child sexual assaults and exploitations.
Pornhub has rejected those allegations, saying the site has “zero tolerance for child sexual abuse materials” and that it has “a vast team” of moderators monitoring the content posted to the site.
Mastercard said in a statement though that an investigation by the company found evidence of “unlawful content.”
“Our investigation over the past several days has confirmed violations of our standards prohibiting unlawful content on their site,” the statement reads.
“Our investigation over the past several days has confirmed violations of our standards prohibiting unlawful content on their site,” the statement reads.
“As a result, and in accordance with our policies, we instructed the financial institutions that connect the site to our network to terminate acceptance. In addition, we continue to investigate potential illegal content on other websites to take the appropriate action.”
