WASHINGTON—Visa and Mastercard on Thursday said they had suspended ties with the advertisement arm of MindGeek, owner of website Pornhub, after a lawsuit raised questions over whether the payment firms could be facilitating child pornography.
A federal judge in California last week rejected Visa’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit by a woman who alleges the company facilitated the distribution of child pornography on Pornhub and other websites run by its parent company MindGeek.
Visa said “we strongly disagree with this decision” and that the company “does not permit the use of our network for illegal activity.”
A spokesperson for MindGeek said the company and all of its platforms, including Pornhub, “have never tolerated” child sexual assault content or any other illegal material….