Mindgeek’s best known brand Pornhub is under siege for many months now. Public and media pressure seemingly organized by religious and anti-porn associations as well as high profile lawsuits against the company keep the adult company in the spotlight. Now, several industry experts keep suggesting that the campaign against the internet’s biggest porn company might have a deep pocketed ally, the billionaire investor Bill Ackman.
It seems like Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital is prepared to go public with his war on porn, a war that right now seems specifically targeted towards the payment processors and credit card companies that are the backbone of adult entertainment of any form online.
The goal behind the campaign against Pornhub is clear, those orchestrating the legal and media attack on MindGeek and its subsidiaries try to cut off the company from any form payment processeing in order to isolate and bankrupt the company. Bill Ackman stepped into the spotlight as one of the well-funded supporters of the war on porn by directly attacking the credit card company Discover in social media posts. He is also trying to find additional people to join a class action suit against Mindgeek.
In the tweet, he wrote »I just learned that Discover is still providing payment services to MindGeek despite Visa and Mastercard’s suspension. This needs to stop now!«
In a step showing his active support towards the class action suit against Mindgeek, he also tweeted, »If you have been victimized by Pornhub, MindGeek or other affiliated sites, you may be eligible for a large amount of compensation for your harm. I encourage you to contact Mike Bowe, who is counsel to 70-plus victims who can help you pursue your claim.«
The problems for Mindgeek keep mounting. And Ackman seems to be a driving force. Before he attacked Discover, he joined forced with anti-porn acitivist Laila Mickelwait and others to pressure Visa to not only cut its ties with Pornhub but to suspend business with other MindGeek brands. As of a few days ago, Visa stopped accepting card payments for one of MindGeek’s important cash cows, the ad network, TrafficJunky.
Visa’s CEO Alfred F. Kelly Jr. had been personally attacked and publically named as liable by Ackman on a financial news show broadcast by CNBC. During the show, Ackman singled out Visa’s CEO by name and demanded that Visa stopped processing payments for MindgGeek, going even so far that Visa should be the company liable and therefore deciding what is acceptable to sell online and what’s not. A breath-taking stance that could ultimately lead to hand over the freedom of speech and freedom of the arts to the two or three credit card companies dominating worldwide payment processes.
It seems rather unlikely that given these successes against MindGeek would be ultimately enough for the anti-porn crusaders. If they bring down MindGeek, many industry experts fear the puritans will come after other sex work and adult entertainment outlets as well.