ACLU Supporter –

Mastercard put into effect a new policy regulating adult content sellers that makes it extremely hard for sex workers to make a living online.

Let me be clear: Laws and policies like Mastercard's criminalize and stigmatize sex work in ways that disproportionately harm the safety and wellbeing of Black trans women, chills free speech, and invade our privacy.

It's long past time major companies were held accountable for such destructive actions – and I'm reaching out to ask you to join me and the ACLU in making sure that they are:

Please sign our petition telling Mastercard to reverse its new discriminatory policy now.

ACLU Supporter, we talked with Mastercard and warned them of the harm this policy will have on sex workers and Black trans women. They went forward with it anyway.

This new policy imposes strict requirements on adult content websites that use Mastercard's credit card or payment options – including pre-approval of all content before publication. The stated intent of this is to prevent child sexual abuse material and other non-consensual content. But the policy only applies to websites that host adult content – despite all available evidence indicating these problems proliferate across the web.

So in reality, all Mastercard's policy really does is threaten sex workers' access to the financial services and online platforms that they depend on for safety and livelihood – making them even more vulnerable, especially those who are trans women of color.

We need to call practices like this what they are: financial discrimination. They attack free speech, stigmatize sex work, and endanger sex workers by pushing the industry deeper into the shadows. That's what Mastercard is doing right now and it's time to put it to an end.

Sex work is work. Period. Let's make sure Mastercard knows it: Sign our petition now.

Thanks for taking action,

LaLa B. Holston-Zannell
Pronouns: she, her, hers
Trans Justice Campaign Manager, ACLU

P.S. This June, the ACLU joined 22 other civil rights groups in demanding PayPal and Venmo stop practices that harm vulnerable communities. Sex workers' rights activists recently pressured the platform OnlyFans to suspend a planned policy to ban pornography. Activism like yours works, ACLU Supporter. So please sign our petition to Mastercard today.