Late Wednesday night, Pornhub announced that PayPal is no longer supporting payments for Pornhub—a decision that will impact thousands of performers using the site as a source of income.
Most visitors to Pornhub likely think of it as a website that simply provides access to an endless supply of free porn, but Pornhub also allows performers to upload, sell, and otherwise monetize videos they make themselves. Performers who used PayPal to get paid for this work now have to switch to a different payment method.
“We are all devastated by PayPal’s decision to stop payouts to over a hundred thousand performers who rely on them for their livelihoods,” the company said on its blog. It then directed models to set up a new payment method, with instructions on how PayPal users can transfer pending payments.
“We sincerely apologize if this causes any delays and we will have staff working around the clock to make sure all payouts are processed as fast as possible on the new payment methods,” the statement said.
A PayPal spokesperson told Motherboard: “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 is one of many payment processors that have discriminated against sex workers for years. Its acceptable use policy states that “certain sexually oriented materials or services” are forbidden—phrasing that’s intentionally vague enough to allow circumstances like this to happen whenever the company wants.
Are you a sex worker who has been impacted by this situation, or by any payment processors discriminating against your work? We’d love to hear from you. Contact Samantha Cole securely on Signal at +6469261726, direct message on Twitter, or by email.
The list of payment platforms, payment apps, and banks that forbid sexual services in their terms of use is very, very long, and includes everything from Venmo to Visa. Many of these terms have been in place for nearly a decade—and payment processors have been hostile toward sex work long before harmful legislation like the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act came into law last year. But those laws only help to embolden companies to kick sex workers off their platforms, and make the situation even more confusing and frustrating for performers.
Source: PayPal Pulls Out of Pornhub, Hurting ‘Hundreds of Thousands’ of Performers – VICE
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