PayPal Axes Payments for Pornhub Performers, Hurting ‘Thousands’ (AVN)

Read the full article by Michael French at AVN.com 

Sudden move harms efforts to end ‘discrimination against sex workers,’ Pornhub says.

Saying that the massive tube site Pornhub had “made certain business payments” without permission, the online payment platform PayPal announced Thursday that it would immediately stop processing payments for porn performers who use Pornhub to earn their living, or even just a few extra bucks.

Pornhub, a subsidiary of the Canadian corporation MindGeek, said in a statement that the sudden cutoff risks leaves more than 100,000 performers without any way to receive income from videos they upload to the site, using one of the porn platform’s various methods of monetizing content.

“We are all devastated by PayPal's decision,” Pornhub management said in a blog post. In the same post, the company provided links to other funding methods that at least so far do not discriminate against performers who create sexually explicit content.

“Following a review, we have discovered that Pornhub has made certain business payments through PayPal without seeking our permission,” PayPal said in a statement sent to the tech site Motherboard. “We have taken action to stop these transactions from occurring.”

But the online payments company, based in San Jose, California, offered not further explanation for why it would cut off Pornhub performers from their incomes.