By Manskar
PayPal has turned off payments to Pornhub’s models — a move that’s left honchos at the adult video website hot and bothered.
“Following a review, we have discovered that PornHub has made certain business payments through PayPal without seeking our permission. We have taken action to stop these transactions from occurring,” PayPal said in an emailed statement.
A PayPal spokesman declined to elaborate on the problematic payments.
Pornhub says it is “devastated” by the decision that will dry up payments for more than 100,000 performers, “who rely on them for their livelihoods.” The site will have staff “working around the clock” to make sure models get their money once they pick a new payment method, it said in a Thursday blog post.
“Decisions like that of PayPal and other major companies do nothing but harm efforts to end discrimination and stigma towards sex workers,” Pornhub vice president Corey Price said in a statement.
The payment halt affects performers in PornHub’s “Model Program,” which allows actors and actresses of legal age to earn a share of the advertising revenue from their original videos on the site, according to Price. For approval, models must upload a valid government photo ID. They are given full ownership of the content they produce.
Pornhub offers models a handful of other payment options including direct deposit, Verge cryptocurrency, Paxum e-wallets and paper checks, according to its website. The site will add “more sex worker friendly” payment methods and explore cryptocurrency options going forward, Price said.
Pornhub is owned by MindGeek, the Luxembourg-based internet smut conglomerate behind Brazzers and Digital Playground. The site is one of the most popular in the world; Pornhub has said it recorded more than 33 billion visits in 2018.
PayPal’s reasons for stopping the Pornhub payments are still murky. But the firm may have been influenced by two federal anti-sex trafficking laws that have broad implications for the tech industry, according to software engineer Alison Falk.
One of the measures — the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act — makes internet companies potentially liable if they knowingly facilitate activities that violate existing sex-trafficking laws. Cutting off the models’ money may be a cautious step PayPal is taking to make sure it’s not breaking the law, Falk said.
PayPal’s acceptable use policy also bans transactions involving “certain sexually oriented materials or services.”
“The irony of all of it is that sex workers … were the early adopters of these payment processors, and once these processors became popular they were kicked off because they were being seen as a liability,” said Falk, the managing director of the advocacy group Women of Sex Tech.
PayPal’s shift was unsurprising to the porn actress Charlotte Sartre given the company’s shaky history with sex workers.
“What’s more surprising is how PornHub even managed to get away with using PayPal for processing payouts for this long, considering the platform has been anti-porn and anti-sexwork since seemingly forever,” Sartre said on Twitter.
PayPal’s move came the same day that Pope Francis said tech executives should be accountable for protecting children from porn online. He reportedly urged companies to do more to combat child porn and identify users’ ages.
“I make an urgent appeal to them to assume their responsibility towards minors, their integrity and their future,” Francis said at a Vatican conference.
