“After an in-depth review, Visa will restore acceptance privileges to MindGeek sites that offer professionally produced adult studio content subject to requirements designed to ensure legal compliance,” Visa said in a statement.
This comes after Visa temporarily suspended purchases on Pornhub earlier this month, following allegations in a New York Times report of child abuse and non-consensual activity on the site. The credit card company says the temporary ban on Pornhub and other MindGeek platforms is still in effect until the ongoing investigation is completed.
The Times report described footage on Pornhub’s website of sexual assaults against unconscious women and girls and videos of naked underage girls. Pornhub has denied those allegations, calling them “irresponsible and blatantly untrue”.
Since then, credit card companies have included MasterCard (MA) and Discover (DFS) have severed financial ties with the website and banned customers from making purchases on the platform.
Pornhub has taken action in response to the allegations by removing millions of explicit videos from unverified uploaders on its platform. The moves are part of its efforts to increase security to prevent child pornography material on its site. The latest measure resulted in a decrease in the number of videos on its website from 13.5 million to about less than 3 million.
Now, says Pornhub, only content uploaded by verified users is allowed.