Pornhub had been under fire since a New York Times report allegedly discovered illegal content mixed in with its millions of erotic videos. Following the report, MasterCard stopped processing payments for the website while rival Visa is also conducting an investigation.
PornHub had blasted the move by the payment processors at the time, pointing out that the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) had reported 118 incidents of child abuse material on PornHub, compared to 84 million reported by Facebook.
The new report did spark a major change in Pornhub policies, however. It decided that all uploaders of material would soon need to be verified. In line with that commitment, Pornhub has effectively removed millions of videos as it has suspended uploads from unverified accounts.
Most of the material on Pornhub is posted by unverified accounts.
It now says it is going further than any other platform in its trust and safety practices but also claims it is being targeted ultimately by groups that wish to abolish pornography outright.
"This means every piece of Pornhub content is from verified uploaders, a requirement that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter have yet to institute," the company said in a blog post.
"It is clear that Pornhub is being targeted not because of our policies and how we compare to our peers, but because we are an adult content platform. The two groups that have spearheaded the campaign against our company are the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (formerly known as Morality in Media) and Exodus Cry/TraffickingHub. These are organizations dedicated to abolishing pornography, banning material they claim is obscene, and shutting down commercial sex work. These are the same forces that have spent 50 years demonizing Playboy, the National Endowment for the Arts, sex education, LGBTQ rights, women's rights, and even the American Library Association. Today, it happens to be Pornhub."
Written by: James Delahunty @ 15 Dec 2020 2:37
