Pornhub just removed 10 million videos
Pornographic website, Pornhub, has reduced its body of content by 10 million - from 13 million down to 3 million videos - after purging anything uploaded by unverified users. The long-called-for move finally came following an investigation by the New York Times, which revealed a large number of the site's porn videos featured underaged and sex-trafficked people.
The NYT report caused uncomfortable waves for the leading porn site, after credit companies Visa and Mastercard cut ties with the company when news of the inappropriate videos was made public. Last week, Pornhub - which is reported to have 3.5 billion visits a month, announced it would be suspending all videos uploaded by unverified profiles in a bid to rid the site of non-consensual and child abuse content. And yesterday, that change was put into action.
In a blog post, Pornhub explained its intentions, insisting that "the safety of our community is our top priority".
"Last week, we enacted the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history. We banned unverified uploaders from posting new content, eliminated downloads, and partnered with dozens of non-profit organisations," the statement read.
It detailed how, as part of the policy to ban unverified uploaders, Pornhub had also suspended any retrospective content "that was not created by content partners or members of the Model Program."
It now means that "every piece of Pornhub content is from verified uploaders," something the company pointed out is a requirement yet to be introduced by other large platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter.
At the beginning of the year, we reported on Pornhub having come under fire for allowing videos of genuine rapes and sexual assaults to appear on the site. At the time, a spokesperson for Pornhub told Cosmopolitan:
"Videos with these titles are more often legal, consensual videos catering to various user fantasies. Since these horrific allegations in 2009, Pornhub has changed ownership and put in place the industry's most stringent safeguards and policies when it comes to combating unauthorised and illegal content."
However you can assume, by the recent and major change, that the safeguards and policies they had put in place were not enough. Over the past three years, an independent, third-party body named the Internet Watch Foundation reported 118 incidents of child sexual abuse material on Pornhub. In its blog post, Pornhub described that as "118 too many, which is why we are committed to taking every necessary action."
Over 10 MILLION videos removed from @Pornhub today.
10 MILLION videos sat on the site, with absolutely no age verification or consent checks in place.
My thoughts go out to every survivor who has been begging @Mindgeek for this day. I hope you sleep a little better tonight x— Kate Isaacs (@Kate_Isaacs) December 14, 2020
Activist Kate Isaacs, founder of Not Your Porn - an organisation that has long campaigned to make hosting non-consensual 'porn' on porn websites illegal - told Cosmopolitan how delighted she was with the news, but how she wishes it had been done sooner.
"We're thrilled to hear that Pornhub have deleted over 10 million videos from their site - but it's too little too late," said Isaacs. "We have consistently raised issues with the site for the past 2 years, highlighting victims experiences. It's a shame that the catalyst for this huge policy change comes from Mastercard and Visa pulling out, when it should have come from the victims who feel that being profited from on a porn website they never consented to being on.
"We need to regulate the porn industry in the UK like any other industry, and hold all porn websites that operate in the UK to a specific standard to protect children, non-consenting adults and sex workers."
Follow Cat on Instagram.
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