Pornhub in the news, Mastercard looking into allegations made of the site

[jag]

Pornhub in the news, Mastercard looking into allegations made of the site




"New York (CNN Business)Mastercard is investigating allegations against Pornhub.com, after a New York Times column on Friday accused the porn site of hosting videos on its platform that depict child abuse and nonconsensual sexual behavior.
The credit card company, which accepts payments on the website, said on Sunday it has "zero tolerance for illegal activity" on its network and that it works closely with law enforcement and organizations such as the National and International Center for Missing and Exploited Children to detect and prevent those types of transactions.
"We are investigating the allegations raised in the New York Times and are working with [Pornhub parent company] MindGeek's bank to understand this situation, in addition to the other steps they have already taken. If the claims are substantiated, we will take immediate action," Mastercard (MA) said in a statement to CNN Business. "When we identify illegal activity, our policy is to ask the acquirer to terminate the relationship, unless an effective compliance plan is put in place."
The investigation comes after a Times' column, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof, described recordings on Pornhub's website of assaults of unconscious women and girls, including a naked video of a 14-year-old girl. He wrote that Pornhub allows videos to be downloaded directly from its site, leaving room for content to spread and be reuploaded to the internet even after it's been taken down.

Pornhub denied the allegations, stating that any assertion it allows child sex abuse material (CSAM) on its platform is "irresponsible and flagrantly untrue."
"Due to the nature of our industry, people's preconceived notions of Pornhub's values and processes often differ from reality — but it is counterproductive to ignore the facts regarding a subject as serious as CSAM, " Pornhub said in a statement to CNN Business. "We have zero tolerance for CSAM. Pornhub is unequivocally committed to combating CSAM, and has instituted an industry-leading trust and safety policy to identify and eradicate illegal material from our community."
Credit card payments on pornographic websites have long been a point of contention, with many activists calling for the suspension of these type of transactions on adult websites.
In a tweet on Saturday in response to the Times' column, hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman called for card companies to either withhold payments or withdraw ties with Pornhub until the issue is fixed.

Amex, VISA and MasterCard should immediately withhold payments or withdraw until this is fixed. PayPal has already done so. Owners of these sites should be criminally prosecuted if this continues. I have reached out and offered to pay for this young woman's education and
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) December 5, 2020

Financial service company American Express prohibits its cards from being accepted on Pornhub, citing a longstanding policy that prohibits cards from being used on digital adult content sites, according to an American Express (AXP) spokesperson.
PayPal (PYPL) also doesn't process payments for Pornhub. The company stopped doing so in 2019.

Visa (V) said it is aware of the allegations and is "actively engaging with the relevant financial institutions to investigate, in addition to engaging directly with the site's parent company, MindGeek."
"If the site is identified as not complying with applicable laws or the financial institutions' acceptable use policies and underwriting standards they will no longer be able to accept Visa payments," Visa told CNN Business in a statement."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/06/business ... index.html

[TheButcher]

Not sure if people outside the industry realize but MindGeek is huge and they would never knowingly allow or be part of anything alleged in this article. But I am sure the article get's views so it ever hurts publications who post this stuff. But as I have always said and still do. "No publicity is bad publicity" So Pornhub might get a few more surfers out of this, hopefully.

[TheButcher]

This guy's statement makes me laugh

"Amex, VISA and MasterCard should immediately withhold payments or withdraw until this is fixed. PayPal has already done so. Owners of these sites should be criminally prosecuted if this continues. I have reached out and offered to pay for this young woman's education and
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) December 5, 2020"


American Express does not allow online adult transactions so if he did his homework or knew how Amex rules work he would not even put Amex in that statement. How can a company withhold payments when it does not even service that site or any other online adult site lol.

[britporn_mike]

Pornhub is too big to fail

[razor]

Mastercard and Visa make good money from adult they will be crazy to ban the sales.

[LuKenGas]

They took this seriously and updated their TOS.


" 1. Verified Uploaders Only

Effective immediately, only content partners and people within the Model Program will be able to upload content to Pornhub. In the new year, we will implement a verification process so that any user can upload content upon successful completion of identification protocol.

2. Banning Downloads

Effective immediately, we have removed the ability for users to download content from Pornhub, with the exception of paid downloads within the verified Model Program. In tandem with our fingerprinting technology, this will mitigate the ability for content already removed from the platform to be able to return.

3. Expanded Moderation ...."


https://help.pornhub.com/hc/en-us/categ ... 0002934613

[TheButcher]

They took this seriously and updated their TOS.


" 1. Verified Uploaders Only

Effective immediately, only content partners and people within the Model Program will be able to upload content to Pornhub. In the new year, we will implement a verification process so that any user can upload content upon successful completion of identification protocol.

2. Banning Downloads

Effective immediately, we have removed the ability for users to download content from Pornhub, with the exception of paid downloads within the verified Model Program. In tandem with our fingerprinting technology, this will mitigate the ability for content already removed from the platform to be able to return.

3. Expanded Moderation ...."


https://help.pornhub.com/hc/en-us/categ ... 0002934613

I read the whole thing and it's a good move on their part. I said in a previous post if (and not saying it did) anything as alleged happened it would not have been condoned by PH. They are a mega site with massive income .

My question is the following, what are they going to do to make sure any content on the site is compliant.

[Emil]

They took this seriously and updated their TOS.


" 1. Verified Uploaders Only

Effective immediately, only content partners and people within the Model Program will be able to upload content to Pornhub. In the new year, we will implement a verification process so that any user can upload content upon successful completion of identification protocol.

2. Banning Downloads

Effective immediately, we have removed the ability for users to download content from Pornhub, with the exception of paid downloads within the verified Model Program. In tandem with our fingerprinting technology, this will mitigate the ability for content already removed from the platform to be able to return.

3. Expanded Moderation ...."


https://help.pornhub.com/hc/en-us/categ ... 0002934613

I wonder how many other tubes will do the same, it seems a good idea.

[shoopa]

article says Visa and Mastercard have banned Pornhub.


"Mastercard Inc and Visa Inc on Thursday stopped processing payments on Pornhub after a New York Times report last week that many videos posted on the adult website depicted sexual assault of children.

Mastercard said it was permanently ending the use of its cards on the sex videos site after its investigation confirmed the presence of illegal content on the platform. Visa said it was suspending payments till an investigation was completed.

Pornhub called the actions as “disappointing,” saying it came after the site implemented safeguards such as a ban on video downloads, as well as permitting only certain partner accounts to upload content.

The New York Times article had also described some videos on the site as recordings of assaults on unconscious women and girls.

Pornhub has denied the allegations.

“This news is crushing for the hundreds of thousands of models who rely on our platform for their livelihoods,” Pornhub said on Thursday. (Reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Noor Zainab Hussain; Editing by Anil D’Silva)"




https://thestarphoenix.com/pmn/business ... se-content

[jag]

This is huge news, if Visa and Mastercard have stopped processing for the site.

[fappmaster]

This is the biggest news of the year in the business, not good news either.

[AlexO]

These changes are bound to be adopted by all tubes, this story will surely affect how all tubes operate going forward

[linux]

Another reason to have a Private eWallet-to-eWallet Payment solution.

Not advocating for anything illegal - But-if your business model is only accepting Visa - MasterCard
there is a weak link in your economic survival.

[TheButcher]

The whole tube model is going to change after this one:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgqjjy/ ... os-content


"Pornhub is removing all videos on its site that weren't uploaded by official content partners or members of its model program, a fundamental shift in the way one of the largest porn sites in the world operates. This means a significant portion of its videos will disappear.

"As part of our policy to ban unverified uploaders, we have now also suspended all previously uploaded content that was not created by content partners or members of the Model Program," according to Pornhub's announcement. "This means every piece of Pornhub content is from verified uploaders, a requirement that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter have yet to institute."

Pornhub said the videos will be removed pending verification and review, and the verification process will begin in the new year. Prior to this change, anyone could create an account on Pornhub and upload any video they wanted to, since the platform's launch in 2007......"

[BHT]

When the big one gets looked at and they make modifications, the smaller sheep will make appropriate changes too.