PayPal cuts ties with porn site

Name: WORLD
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PayPal headquarters in San Jose, Calif. Associated Press/Photo by Jeff Chiu (file)

Users who upload videos to a major pornographic website for money will have to find a new online payment service after PayPal blocked such transactions earlier this week. The change affects hundreds of thousands of accounts at Pornhub, according to the site.

Why did PayPal unfriend Pornhub? The company released a vague statement to media outlets saying Pornhub “made certain business payments through PayPal without seeking our permission. We have taken action to stop these transactions from occurring.” In the past few months, more and more women and underage girls have complained that sex traffickers forced them to perform in videos posted on the site. Pornhub appears to be making a quick recovery from the PayPal disruption by switching to more cryptocurrency payments.

Dig deeper: Read Kiley Crossland’s report in Relations about the link between adult and child pornography.

Lynde Langdon

Lynde is WORLD’s executive editor for news. She is a graduate of World Journalism Institute, the Missouri School of Journalism, and the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Lynde resides with her family in Wichita, Kan.

@lmlangdon