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In August of 2022, Visa was facing a lawsuit that alleged they were assisting PornHub of profiting off of child porn [0]. This likely caused the card companies

by cowsup 3y ago

In August of 2022, Visa was facing a lawsuit that alleged they were assisting PornHub of profiting off of child porn [0]. This likely caused the card companies, as well as affiliated banks, to re-evaluate their customers and get any adult site off, including the user at the top of this comment thread. Was his site allowing user-generated content? No. Was he at risk of facilitating child porn? Also no. Would the banks and card companies be willing to research that and make exceptions for a single account? Unlikely. [0] https://www.pcmag.com/news/visa-to-stop-processing-payments-for-pornhubs-advertising-arm https://www.pcmag.com/news/visa-to-stop-processing-payments-...

gspencley 3y ago
Ironically, MindGeek (also a Canadian company and the parent company of PornHub) is still in business. One of our former sponsors banks with a credit union in Quebec and that very Credit Union turned us down too. Our takeaway was that you'll get an exception if you're doing millions in transactions and are a huge corporation, but the "little guys" can GTFO.
- sdwvit 3y ago
  They sold the business last year I believe, may be wrong
- retrac 3y ago
  > a credit union in Quebec and that very Credit Union turned us down too Perhaps somewhat impractical, but a quick skim of Ontario's credit union laws does not seem to preclude a credit union operated by a trade association of pornographers, or similar, to provide personal and commercial banking services to that community.
- azinman2 3y ago
  I'm surprised given Quebec is one of the porn capitals of the world. Given how much money flows through you'd think at this point the porn producers would just form their own credit union!
  - 908B64B197 3y ago
    Why Quebec in particular? I know the French Canadians have a reputation for being open-minded (judging by the attitude toward the LGBT community at least, from what I've been told).
psychphysic 3y ago
Not just risk of lawsuits but a hedge fund manager pulled strings with Mastercard CEO [0]. That led to a policy of simply dropping porn companies which makes sense even if it's to make it seem like PornHub wasn't unfairly targeted. [0] https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/bill-ackman-pornhub-millions-unauthorized-video-removed-mastercard-visa-2021-6-1030531577 https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/bill-ackman-...
kingcharles 3y ago
I ran a web site and our e-commerce all ran through PayPal, about $2m a year. One competitor would email PayPal on a weekly basis to tell them we were selling CSAM which was a really great way to get PayPal to instantly block all payments while they investigated. In fairness to PayPal, and the reason for my reply, is that PayPal's tech staff would go to town and do a very thorough investigation of our entire site, including the back end, to make sure it wasn't true, and then would restore the account. So, some companies do have the staff and willingness to actually make the effort to investigate. I had no problem with PayPal doing it, I just wish they didn't block first, but they were simply covering themselves and I totally understand their business position.

by cowsup 3y ago

gspencley 3y ago

Ironically, MindGeek (also a Canadian company and the parent company of PornHub) is still in business. One of our former sponsors banks with a credit union in Quebec and that very Credit Union turned us down too. Our takeaway was that you'll get an exception if you're doing millions in transactions and are a huge corporation, but the "little guys" can GTFO.

sdwvit 3y ago
They sold the business last year I believe, may be wrong
retrac 3y ago
> a credit union in Quebec and that very Credit Union turned us down too Perhaps somewhat impractical, but a quick skim of Ontario's credit union laws does not seem to preclude a credit union operated by a trade association of pornographers, or similar, to provide personal and commercial banking services to that community.
azinman2 3y ago
I'm surprised given Quebec is one of the porn capitals of the world. Given how much money flows through you'd think at this point the porn producers would just form their own credit union!
- 908B64B197 3y ago
  Why Quebec in particular? I know the French Canadians have a reputation for being open-minded (judging by the attitude toward the LGBT community at least, from what I've been told).

psychphysic 3y ago

Not just risk of lawsuits but a hedge fund manager pulled strings with Mastercard CEO [0]. That led to a policy of simply dropping porn companies which makes sense even if it's to make it seem like PornHub wasn't unfairly targeted. [0] https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/bill-ackman-pornhub-millions-unauthorized-video-removed-mastercard-visa-2021-6-1030531577 https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/bill-ackman-...

kingcharles 3y ago

I ran a web site and our e-commerce all ran through PayPal, about $2m a year. One competitor would email PayPal on a weekly basis to tell them we were selling CSAM which was a really great way to get PayPal to instantly block all payments while they investigated. In fairness to PayPal, and the reason for my reply, is that PayPal's tech staff would go to town and do a very thorough investigation of our entire site, including the back end, to make sure it wasn't true, and then would restore the account. So, some companies do have the staff and willingness to actually make the effort to investigate. I had no problem with PayPal doing it, I just wish they didn't block first, but they were simply covering themselves and I totally understand their business position.