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The
New York Times column, written by Nicholas Kristof, described
videos on Pornhub that the author said were recordings of
assaults on unconscious women and girls.
"The issue is not pornography but rape. Let's agree that
promoting assaults on children or on anyone without consent is
unconscionable," Kristof wrote in the column published on
Friday. (https://nyti.ms/2JXiqSw)
Pornhub denied the allegations.
"Any assertion that we allow CSAM (child sexual abuse material)
is irresponsible and flagrantly untrue," it said in a statement
emailed to Reuters.
Mastercard told Reuters in a statement that it was investigating
the allegations with Pornhub's parent MindGeek's bank. "If the
claims are substantiated, we will take immediate action,"
Mastercard said.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman called on Mastercard and Visa
Inc to temporarily withhold payments to Pornhub following the
newspaper column.
Ackman also asked American Express Co to take action, though the
company's cards aren't accepted on the site.
Visa said it is aware of the allegations and is "actively
engaging with the relevant financial institutions to
investigate," while also engaging directly with 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," the company said in a statement.
American Express said it has a longstanding global policy that
prohibits acceptance of its cards on digital adult content
websites.
Ackman suggested it should be made illegal for porn sites to
post videos before they are reviewed by a monitor, and until the
ages and consent of participants have been validated.
In its response, Pornhub said it has a vast team of human
moderators who manually review "every single upload," as well as
automated detection technologies. It did not say how many people
were part of its review team.
Kristof's column also drew reactions from politicians including
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said his government
was working with police and security officials to address the
issues it raised.
In the United States, Senator Josh Hawley said he will introduce
legislation to create a federal right to sue for every person
"coerced or trafficked or exploited by sites like Pornhub."
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia and Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing
by Daniel Wallis)
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