PURCHASE, N.Y. — Mastercard last week informed acquirers about updates to its Business Risk Assessment and Mitigation (BRAM) standards for adult content, including verbiage addressing deepfakes.

The new language first appeared in the March 2023 version of the credit card company’s document answering frequently asked questions (FAQs) about adult content payment processing.

According to the BRAM document sent to acquirers last week regarding adult content:

If consent cannot be established, the content is considered in violation of the adult content and services requirements and therefore, must not be published or must be removed immediately.

For the avoidance of doubt, if the adult content includes an image or strong likeness to an actual person and that person has not provided consent for the use of their image/likeness including, but not limited to, the creation of deepfake content, the content is considered in violation of Mastercard adult content and services requirements and therefore, must not be published or must be removed immediately.

Acquirers — also known as acquiring banks or merchant banks — are financial institutions that maintain the accounts necessary for a merchant — like an adult business or creator — to accept credit cards. Some payment processors are also acquirers.

Payment processors are responsible for passing along Mastercard’s new deepfake policies to their adult businesses and creators merchants.