Advocates: New Mastercard Policy Hurts Sex Workers
Policy puts more pressure on websites to police activity on their platforms
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
Advocates are voicing
criticism in response to
a new Mastercard policy
that they say unfairly
targets sex worker communities
by imposing stricter regulations on
the purchasing of adult content.
In April, Mastercard announced
that banks under their registration
program would be required
to confi rm that websites selling
adult content “monitor, block, and
remove illegal or unconsented” material
from their platforms. While
the company claims the program,
which went into effect October 15,
does not affect legal and consensual
adult content creators, activists
are decrying the policy as a form of
fi nancial discrimination that creates
an uneven playing fi eld for sex
workers.
Under Mastercard’s new policy,
banks are required to verify that
platforms record the age and identity
of all adult performers and
have a process to review content
before publication. According to
the updated guidelines, adult platforms
must have a strategy for addressing
illegal, nonconsensual
posts and removing content for individuals
who no longer want their
videos on the site.
“This is bad news for many sex
workers, whose safety and livelihoods
depend on access to fi nancial
services and online platforms,”
the ACLU’s Trans Justice campaign
manager, LaLa Zannell, said
in an op-ed on the ACLU website.
“The policy makes it harder for sex
workers to do business online and
makes sex workers more vulnerable,
especially those who are trans
women of color.”
Advocates say these stricter protocols
are unrealistic and will not
help the company’s intended demographic.
“The stated intent of the policy
is to prevent child sexual abuse
material and other nonconsensual
content. But in practice, these requirements
are diffi cult — if not
impossible — to comply with,” Zannell
wrote in the post.
Mastercard is facing heat from advocates for installing a new policy they say discriminates against sex workers.
Cecilia Gentili, a New York Citybased
advocate fi ghting for the
rights of sex workers, shared Zannell’s
post on Twitter, writing, “Everyone
deserves access to fi nancial
services and everyone should be
able to make a living — sex workers
included.
AIDS United, a national nonprofi
t organization working to
combat HIV/AIDS, stressed that
the policy is not helping in the fi ght
against the epidemic.
“Listening to and meaningfully
involving sex workers is paramount
in any situation, but especially
in our goal to end the HIV
epidemic,” AIDS United noted in
a tweet. “New regulations by large
corporations are making sex workers
feel exploited and unsafe.”
In response, Mastercard rejected
accusations that the policy targets
sex workers.
“We welcome dialogue and different
perspectives about our policies
and programs, but let us be
clear — allegations of bias against
adult content creators are demonstrably
untrue,” a spokesperson
for Mastercard said in a written
statement. “Our actions and business
practices against traffi cking
and exploitation clearly show this.
And, as we have shared in our discussions
with groups over the past
several months, we are monitoring
how the program is implemented
so that we can provide further
clarifi cation and guidance to the
acquiring banks and their customers
as needed.”
In the post, the ACLU noted that
Mastercard’s policy singles out
adult content despite these issues
appearing “across all kinds of websites.”
The organization also said
that this policy would “make it
much harder for platforms to host
adult content” and “destabilize the
websites that sex workers use to
make a living.”
As the ACLU demands Mastercard
to reverse its policies, the organization
is also calling on other
ADVOCACY
REUTERS/JONATHAN BAINBRIDGE/ILLUSTRATION/FILE PHOTO
fi nancial service companies to
include sex workers in their decision
making process. According
to activists, these concerns come
as an outgrowth of federal legislation
such as the Fight Online Sex
Traffi cking Act (FOSTA) and the
Stop Enabling Sex Traffi ckers Act
(SESTA), which puts more responsibility
on platforms for the content
on their sites.
“Mastercard must end their policy
of unfairly targeting the adult
content industry and ensure equitable
access to fi nancial services,”
Zannell concluded in the post. “In
addition to reversing discriminatory
policies, Mastercard must sit
down with stakeholders to develop
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