Pornhub has pulled millions of videos from its site amid a firestorm over uploads featuring sexual assault and child sexual abuse.
Approximately 10 million videos have been taken down pending a verification and review process beginning in the new year. In a statement, Pornhub announced it was following up on previous changes including banning unverified users from uploading new content, and eliminating downloads.
“As part of our policy to ban unverified uploaders, we have now also suspended all previously uploaded content that was not created by content partners or members of the Model Program.
“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.
The move, which upends the previous policy of allowing anyone with an account to upload any video they wanted to, comes after Visa and Mastercard pulled their support from the Mindgeek network, announcing they would not process payments for a range of adult sites including Pornhub, Youporn, Xtube, Redtube, and Brazzers.
In its own statement earlier this week, Mastercard confirmed it was dropping Mindgeek payments due to “illegal material”.
“Our investigation over the past several days has confirmed violations of our standards prohibiting unlawful content on their site.
“As a result, and in accordance with our policies, we instructed the financial institutions that connect the site to our network to terminate acceptance. In addition, we continue to investigate potential illegal content on other websites to take the appropriate action,” the card provider said.
Defending itself, Pornhub said that it was being targeted for being an adult content platform, and that “all social media platforms share the responsibility to combat illegal material”.
“Leading non-profit organizations and advocacy groups acknowledge our efforts to date at combating illegal content have been effective.
“Over the last three years, Facebook self-reported 84 million instances of child sexual abuse material. During that same period, the independent, third-party Internet Watch Foundation reported 118 incidents on Pornhub. That is still 118 too many, which is why we are committed to taking every necessary action,” it said.
A New York Times piece last week detailed the experiences of child sexual abuse victims who saw videos of their assaults uploaded to the platform, kicking off a furore over Pornhub’s policies.