Visa Cuts Off Ability to Buy Pornhub Ads After Court Ruling in Child Porn Case
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital EditorVisa said it is suspending payment privileges of TrafficJunky, the advertising arm of online porn network operator MindGeek.
The announcement comes a week after a judge denied Visa’s request to be removed from a case in which MindGeek is being sued for allegedly distributing child pornography — and which alleges that Visa knowingly facilitated MindGeek’s ability to monetize it.Visa CEO Alfred Kelly, in a blog post Thursday, said the payment processing giant “strongly disagree[s]” with the decision and that the company is “confident in our position.”However, the court’s decision “also created new uncertainty about the role of TrafficJunky, MindGeek’s advertising arm,” he wrote.
For that reason, Visa will suspend TrafficJunky’s Visa acceptance privileges “until further notice,” according to Kelly. The suspension means that Visa cards will not be able to be used to purchase advertising on any MindGeek-affiliated sites, including Pornhub. “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 wrote.The plaintiff in the case is Serena Fleites, who alleges that when she was 13 her then-boyfriend shared a sexually explicit video on Pornhub that was then viewed millions of times across MindGeek sites.
On Friday, July 29, Judge Cormac Carney of the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California denied Visa’s motion to dismiss the claim it violated California’s Unfair Competition Law.“Visa knew that MindGeek’s websites were teeming with monetized child porn,” the judge wrote in the decision. “At this early stage of the proceedings, before plaintiff has had any discovery from which to derive Visa’s.
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