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Comment by ProjectArcturis | Hacker News Reader

If Visa and MC waited until PornHub was actually found guilty, they'd be right there next to them in the docket. Facilitating payment for illegal activities is itself a crime, and our laws require that payment processors exercise judgement in who they will work with.

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Wouldn't this apply to any social media site? Any of them might have illegal activity / content, and they certainly do.

First, there's a huge difference between child pornography and other illegal activities. It will be prosecuted much more aggressively, and rightly so. It is illegal to create, distribute, or possess.

The basic rule is, these social media sites have to make a reasonable effort to keep that stuff off their sites. Based on the NYTimes report, Pornhub was absolutely not doing that. Visa and MC's lawyers would have given them no choice but to stop working with Pornhub.

Who defines what constitutes "reasonable effort"? How would you even know without having them go through a legal process like a court? Is it just up to any angry journalist to make this determination?

I personally wouldn't use PornHub, as I have a negative impression of their moderation standards. Being exposed to child porn could put me at serious legal risk, if I were to inadvertently view the wrong thing. But, that is a simple risk calculation on my part. And I am already surprised so many people would put themselves at risk, of using a website which lets anyone to submit content.

A reasonable course of action could have been to temporarily suspend payment processing until PornHub took appropriate corrective action (which they now have), and restoring payments afterward.

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