Visa announced Wednesday it will no longer process transactions related to adult advertising from Backpage.com.
The move follows a similar decision from MasterCard on Tuesday.
Sheriff Tom Dart of Illinois’ Cook County had asked the credit giants to stop handling adult transactions with Backpage.com for “moral, social and legal” reasons, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Visa said in a statement that it doesn’t allow its network to be used “for illegal activity.” MasterCard said it, too, doesn’t want its cards used for “illegal or brand-damaging activities,” The Journal reported.
Backpage.com is a popular site for classified listings, including apartment rentals, car sales and job openings. Efforts to force the Dutch-owned company to shut down its adult advertising have not been successful, according to The Journal.
Craigslist, which is a similar site, stopped posting adult and erotic service advertisements in 2010, The WSJ reported.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCSE) applauded the credit cards for choosing to “reject profits” from a website that is believed to expedite sex trafficking and prostitution.
“The war on sex trafficking must be all-out, and no American company should profit from the sexual exploitation of any human being,” said the NCSE, which has listed Backpage.com on its “Dirty Dozen” list of companies and groups that contribute to and profit from sexual exploitation.
• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached at cwetzstein@washingtontimes.com.
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