Choked by the Chain

Visa and Mastercard have come under increasing scrutiny from sex workers, civil rights advocates, and financial experts for their policies targeting the adult industry. Critics argue that while these companies claim to combat illegal activity, their actions disproportionately harm legal adult content creators—particularly those from marginalized communities—and undermine financial justice.

Policy Overhauls: Mastercard's 2021 Mandates and Visa’s 2025 VAMP Rollout

In October 2021, Mastercard introduced sweeping new compliance requirements for adult content merchants. Visa and other payment networks soon adopted similar standards, citing public outcry over unmoderated illegal content and mounting pressure from anti-trafficking groups.

Key Requirements Include:

• Age and Identity Verification: Performers must present government-issued ID to verify their identity and age.
• Proof of Consent: Platforms must store signed model releases or equivalent consent documentation.
• Pre-Publication Content Review: All content—including live streams—must be reviewed and approved before going live.
• Complaint and Takedown Protocols: Platforms must offer clear reporting mechanisms and resolve complaints within seven days.
• Marketing Restrictions: Adult content merchants are barred from using search terms or promotional language suggesting illegal or non-consensual activity.

Looking ahead, Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP), launched April 1st 2025, imposes stricter fraud and dispute thresholds on high-risk merchants, including adult sites. Merchants must maintain fraud and chargeback rates under 1.5% (dropping to 0.9% by 2026), or face potential penalties and account termination.

Private Policy vs. Public Law

Visa and Mastercard justify these standards as safeguards against exploitation, but critics argue the policies far exceed legal requirements. 

• In the U.S., FOSTA-SESTA holds platforms accountable for facilitating trafficking but does not require pre-screening of all content or universal ID verification.
• In the EU, laws like the eCommerce Directive and the upcoming Digital Services Act require reactive moderation—content must be removed when flagged, not preemptively filtered.

This means the card networks are imposing stricter, global private standards than even national governments, effectively acting as unaccountable regulators without democratic oversight.

Growing Concerns Over American Influence on European Payment Systems

The dominance of Visa and Mastercard in global payments has raised concerns about economic sovereignty, especially in Europe. As De Nederlandsche Bank warned,

“Het beleid van buitenlandse regeringen kan resulteren in controle over hoe en aan wie we betalen. Dat is onwenselijk.” (“The policies of foreign governments can result in control over how and to whom we pay. That is undesirable.”) (NOS)

Discriminatory Impact on Legal Sex Workers

Sex workers and their advocates emphasize that these policies disproportionately harm legal creators, especially those already facing systemic bias. As New York City-based sex worker Vanniall explained:

“Most sex workers are about two steps away from complete financial ruin at any time. Because payment processors view the adult industry as ‘high-risk,’ its workers face widespread discrimination from both banks and credit card companies.” (ACLU)

The ACLU, in a formal complaint to the FTC, stated that Mastercard’s new rules force sex workers into “arduous—and often impossible—mazes of verification and regulation,” resulting in lost income and greater financial instability, especially for Black, immigrant, and transgender sex workers.

Lack of Transparency and Due Process

Many creators report sudden account suspensions or closures with no warning or explanation, and often no meaningful appeals process. One anonymous worker told Vice:

“By forcing me to fill out a consent ‘contract’ or upload an ID that protects producers, platforms, and banks from liability, I would have a harder time winning a case against an abusive producer. This surveillance doesn’t protect me—it makes me less safe.”(Vice)

Repeated calls by sex worker organizations to be included in policy discussions have gone largely ignored. In September 2021, nearly 1,500 sex workers and allies signed a public letter demanding that Mastercard halt the changes and consult directly with impacted communities.

Real-World Impact: Lost Income and Heightened Risk

The practical consequences have been devastating. Automated flagging systems have frozen creators’ funds overnight. Vanniall recounted:

“I lost all of my rent for that month overnight because of a tagging system that they had just put in place.” (ACLU)

This is not an isolated incident—surveys show that 90% of sex workers experienced detrimental impacts after the new regulations, including account closures, payment interruptions, and the need to remove content for documentation reasons.

Civil Society Response and Calls for Reform

Organizations such as the ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and Fair Finance International are calling for urgent reform, arguing that legal businesses should be governed by transparent, democratically-enacted laws, not opaque and shifting private policies. As Valerie Webber, a sex worker and researcher, told Vice:

“Sex workers are at the frontlines of these policies and have been shouting for years about the consequences… What does continue to astound me is the resilience that sex workers demonstrate in the face of such constant discrimination and labour precarity.” (Vice)

Broader Consequences: Market Instability and Moral Policing

These policies don’t just affect sex workers—they reverberate across the entire digital economy. When Visa and Mastercard severed ties with Pornhub in 2020, it was celebrated by groups like the National Center on Sexual Exploitation as a moral victory, but critics warned that it set a dangerous precedent: private corporations acting as global arbiters of morality

Conclusion: A Call for Accountability and Fairness

Visa and Mastercard's adult content policies—though framed as protective measures—have sparked widespread criticism for their lack of legal grounding, due process, and transparency. The result is a system that undermines the safety and livelihood of legal sex workers while expanding the unchecked power of financial institutions.

Real-world testimonies and tangible economic harms underscore the urgent need for reform: financial regulation in the digital age must be rooted in law, informed by impacted communities, and accountable to the public—not driven by opaque corporate standards.