Mastercard Considers Cutting Ties to Pornhub After Child Abuse Content Allegations: Bloomberg

Mastercard Inc MA is rethinking its connections to Pornhub.com parent company MindGeek after a New York Times op-ed alleged Pornhub streams video content involving child abuse and non-consensual violence, Bloomberg has reported.

What Happened: Columnist Nicholas Kristof in a piece published on Thursday claimed that Pornhub failed to “adequately block or filter content depicting violence,” allowing illegal content, including a video of a 14-year-old girl, to be spread. 

Mastercard said in a statement that it is investigating these allegations ad working with law enforcement.

“If the claims are substantiated, we will take immediate action,” the company said.

Pornhub claims these accusations are untrue. 

Why It Matters: Payment giants like Mastercard and Visa Inc V do not work directly with retailers. Websites usually work with a so-called “merchant acquirer,” a bank that facilitates the process of payments.

The NYT op-ed sparked outrage on social media. Prominent investor Bill Ackman urged Visa and Mastercard to “immediately withhold payments or withdraw until this is fixed.”

Visa did not respond immediately to Bloomberg's request for comment. 

Price Action: Mastercard shares traded 0.017% lower at $344.29 in the after-hours trading on Friday.