Judge refuses to remove Visa from Pornhub child porn lawsuit

NY Post ^ | July l31, 2022 | Elizabeth Rosner Jesse O'Neill

[thinden]

A federal judge ruled Friday that Visa helped Pornhub “monetize child porn” and sex trafficking ....

[Valpal1]

In December 2020, a New York Times op-ed declared that Pornhub had a child porn problem. Subsequently, Visa temporarily suspended all business with Pornhub and other sites hosted by Pornhub owner MindGeek.

At that time, a MindGeek employee confidentially claimed that this was MindGeek's worst fear—losing one of its major payment processors—and, therefore, it was unsurprising when MindGeek responded to increased pressure from Visa and other companies by immediately deleting 80 percent of its hosted content, approximately 10 million unverified videos. According to a California court, much of that was likely child porn.

After that, Visa seemed to think that the matter was resolved and continued doing business with MindGeek, claiming it has no control over MindGeek's content.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/08/california-court-says-visa-may-be-partly-liable-for-child-porn-problem/?amp=1

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Visa first demonstrates it's raw power over MindGeek and then claims it has no ability to influence MindGeek's content choices. This is why the judge is not accepting the BS.

For those that think this will result in lawsuits regarding gun manufacturers, etc. are making a category error. Guns are a legal product and child porn is a felony in every jurisdiction in the solar system.

The fact is, Visa didn't want to end it's very, very, very lucrative relationship with MindGeek and engaged in virtue signaling theater that literally demonstrated their power to control content and then went straight back to the trough.

Now they've got discovery problems and the potential for whistleblowers as the size of the lawsuit grows. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of suits. /s

[Boogieman]

Bingo, they are not a neutral party anymore; they are endorsing the businesses they partner with now.

[zeugma]

On morality this is a good ruling BUT the ramifications are very troubling. Think of this, VISA being sued because they financed a gun sale for one that killed someone or a car that was sold to a unlicensed driver who ran someone over. So I hope that decision is undone.

Agreed. 2nd order consequences of this could be very bad.

[Scarlett156]

Trying to equate pornography with the freedom to defend oneself and one’s property and political free speech is a fascist move. ;) It’s not the same thing. It’s a product - like abortion is supposedly a “medical procedure” and nobody should have the right to tell you not to get a medical procedure if you’re okay with it, and blah blah blah. Equating something that in fact robs its victims of freedom as a “right” - hm, well we just saw what happened to Roe v Wade. I guess..... abortion isn’t a “right.” It’s a product produced by exploiters and criminals that we’ve been carefully groomed to equate with a right - notwithstanding the rights of its victims, in the case of abortion, innocent fetuses. In the case of porn, it’s children, the disabled, and animals.

You sound like a dedicated pornography consumer. I’m totally not stepping on your toes here, dude. Nobody cares what I say.

Just relax: I’m sure big companies like Visa will always figure a way to keep enabling exploitation and abuse of minors and the disabled, which is profitable.

And I don’t see how I’m keeping you from getting your fix by telling the truth about something: Porn isn’t free speech. That people get swayed into letting it into their lives by some criminal with a pricey legal team calling it free speech creates decay in our society, just like normalizing homosexuality. I will never stop you from looking at what you like to look at, but it’s just like calling pornography “art” - it’s not THAT, either.

Have a nice day.