It’s not often that major corporations are willing to take a stand for morality at the expense of their bottom line, so it’s important for us to acknowledge companies that do show courage. In 2019, PayPal made headlines for refusing to process payments from the world’s largest pornography website. Now two of the nation’s biggest credit card companies are following suit.
The website, which I won’t name here, was recently exposed in a New York Times article documenting extensive child abuse and nonconsensual content throughout the platform. Because these websites are paid by the amount of traffic they have, there is a strong and perverse financial incentive for them to overlook legally questionable content that brings in views. Despite the valiant efforts of those across the political spectrum who fight sexual exploitation, the government would not step in to bring an end to this injustice. That’s when PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa saved the day by refusing to work with the website.
As soon as MasterCard and Visa severed ties, the smut peddlers became irate. First, they cried about their free speech right to spread trash. When that didn’t work, they promised to change their ways. They removed content that could potentially include exploitation. That reduced the site by 70%, or 10.5 million videos. Yes, you heard that right. Of the 13.5 million videos once hosted on the world’s largest and most profitable pornography website, 10.5 million potentially contained child pornography and rape. Even more crazy is the fact that the website announced that they may bring those videos back if they go through some kind of vague verification process. Like a dog returning to its vomit, they can’t control themselves.
MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal are obviously taking a big financial hit for refusing to process hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.
America needs to thank them for taking a moral stand against sexual abuse. This courageous tale is a stark reminder that free market capitalism cannot be separated from the moral foundation America was built upon. We must hold corporations just as accountable as individuals when it comes to stopping the scourge of sexual exploitation.
