[Updated, 3:24 p.m: Added a statement from MindGeek.]
BENGALURU, India — According to a Reuters report, Visa announced that it “has allowed usage of its cards on MindGeek’s platforms that host professionally generated content,” although it continues the suspension of card use on the company’s tube site Pornhub “until pending investigations are complete.”
The short announcement was reported by a Reuters staffer in Bengaluru, the city formerly known as Bangalore in southern India.
The Indian reporter, Sohini Podder, noted the company told them that “following a thorough review, Visa will reinstate acceptance privileges for MindGeek sites that offer professionally produced adult studio content.”
A MindGeek representative replied to XBIZ's request for comment through a statement saying the company is "dedicated to working with our partners to demonstrate that we have put in place the most far-reaching safeguards in user-generated platform history, including banning unverified users from uploading content — a policy that no other platform has put in place."
"Any assertion that we allow child sexual abuse material on our platform is flagrantly untrue," the statement continued. "We are committed to combating illegal content for the safety of our community, and so that the hundreds of thousands of models that rely on our platform can continue to earn a living."
Users of MindGeek's studio-produced content sites have reported mixed results trying to use Visa, Mastercard and cryptocurrency since December 4, when the New York Times published a sensationalistic editorial by Nicholas Kristof alleging that Pornhub is “infested with rape videos.”
Religiously motivated anti-porn organization Exodus Cry has claimed they were the impulse behind Kristof’s editorial, pursuing their avowed mission to “shut down Pornhub.”
Kristof directly and publicly called for intervention against Pornhub from prominent politicians and credit card companies.
On December 10, as XBIZ reported, Visa and Mastercard announced that they had frozen payments through their cards on Pornhub.