ALBANY, N.Y.—A group of nearly 40 New York state lawmakers have called on Visa and Mastercard on to stop allowing hate groups to use their credit cards to sell products.
In letters to heads of both credit card companies, the lawmakers, led by Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D), said it was disturbing that Visa and Mastercard were profiting from the sale of race-baiting products on websites operated by hate groups, the New York Daily News reported.
"Visa and Mastercard are contributing to the widespread wave of racism, bigotry, and unadulterated hatred that currently plague our society," said Hikind in the New York Daily News report. "Regardless of whether or not they have done so unwittingly, now that we've brought their attention to the matter, we expect them to cease immediately."
The lawmakers cited the website Tightrope.cc, as an example of a hate-inspired site allowing users to buy goods with their Visa or Mastercard. Among the products offered on the site are t-shirts, caps and posters with swastikas or Ku Klux Klan symbols, the New York Daily News stated.
"Our communities are outraged to see prominent corporations like Visa and Mastercard involved with something that goes so strongly against the principles of decency," Hikind said in the newspaper report.
“These issues are important and difficult” for the company,” a representative from Visa told the New York Daily News. “Visa does not sign merchants directly. Rather, financial institutions who issue Visa cards enter into agreements with individual merchants. We are currently investigating the site in question, and will require the bank that signed the merchant to conduct a full review.”
Mastercard told the newspaper, “We are looking into the request made in this letter,” but “we believe that offensive speech will be seen for what it is. For that reason, we generally do not prohibit the acceptance of Mastercard-branded payment cards by merchants based on our disagreement with specific views espoused or promoted.”