Pornhub has revealed it is making major policy changes in how its content will operate, including bans and expanding moderation efforts.
In an announcement made on Tuesday, Pornhub declared that it will be making a series of major changes in how the platform operates. The policy change sees the banning of downloads, restricting uploads to verified users, and bolstering its moderation process in an effort to combat sex crime.
Prior to the policy change, Pornhub allowed anyone to upload content without any verification. This meant that copyrighted, abusive, and even rape material could circulate the site until a rights holder complained to the platform to take it down.
“Effective immediately, only content partners and people within the Model Program will be able to upload content to Pornhub,” a statement released by Pornhub says.
As a part of its new policy, Pornhub said it will use CSAI Match (YouTube’s technology for combating Child Sexual Abuse Imagery), Content Safety API (Google’s artificial tool for detecting illegal material), and PhotoDNA (a technology used by Facebook and Google to automatically detect images of child sexual abuse) – technologies which are already used by many other major online platforms.
Pornhub’s changes today are too little too late. They have knowingly destroyed lives for profit for too many years. Justice for victims means prosecution to the full extent of the law. Pornhub should be shut down, the CEO/COO put in prison and restitution given to all victims.
— Laila Mickelwait (@LailaMickelwait) December 9, 2020
“In April 2020, we retained outside experts to independently review our compliance program and make recommendations that focus on eliminating all illegal content and achieving a ‘best-in-class’ program that sets the standard for the technology industry,” Pornhub said in its announcement.
The changes come after the New York Times released a report this week, detailing the horrific experiences of child abuse and rape victims whose content was uploaded to Pornhub. In one instance, a victim claimed Pornhub repeatedly ignored requests to take down a video of her rape, and only removed it once she threatened to take legal action.
A special thanks to those young women and men who shared their stories and documentation about Pornhub, because they didn’t want other kids to endure what they had suffered. It was their courage, their stories, that made this happen. Teens like Serena: https://t.co/syVIjZgEy6
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) December 8, 2020
On Monday, Visa and Mastercard said they would investigate the allegations and their financial relationship to MindGeek, Pornhub’s parent company.
The policies represent a much-welcomed industry change and certainly a step forward for sex crime justice.
https://twitter.com/1Femdomslave/status/1335893071209377794
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