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.