PornHub is one of the biggest brands in the adult entertainment industry. However, its advertising arm – called TrafficJunky, operated by pornHub parent company MindGeek, finds itself in contested waters. Visa and Mastercard will no longer process payments on behalf of TrafficJunky.
Pornhub Advertising Division Is In Trouble
There is much more to Pornhub and parent company MindGeek than meets the eye. The overarching firm has various divisions working in tandem with the top-tier adult entertainment video platform. For instance, its advertising arm TrafficJunky displays advertisements on Pornhub and all other platforms operated by MindGeek. It is a solid system, although one that has attracted unwanted attention.
More specifically, TrafficJunky apparently advertised child pornography. That prompted some people to take Visa to court for “knowingly facilitating the distribution of child pornography via Pornhub. It is unclear how a payment processor would have a hand in advertisements shown on a third-party website, but a California judge denied Visa’s dismissal motion.
As a result of this court action, Visa – and Mastercard – have now suspended payments to TrafficJunky. The decision isn’t too surprising, as both card processors suspended payments to PornHub in 2020 following claims of the platform hosting child sexual assault. PornHub has explored other options since then and continues to thrive without skipping a beat.
Mastercard issued a statement explaining they will “direct financial institutions to suspend acceptance of Mastercard products at TrafficJunky”. It is plausible to assume Visa is doing the same. Furthermore, both firms claim they are still part of indirectly funding PornHub despite cutting ties with that brand two years ago.