In a cleaning sweep, Pornhub deletes upwards of 10 million videos in an effort to combat illegal and unverified material.
Pornhub has just removed a staggering 80% of its videos, following announcements the company would introduce regulation policies to better moderate content on their site. This comes after recent allegations, which claim that Pornhub was hosting child pornography and videos related to sex crimes.
The porn site effectively implemented the changes last week, claiming it had “the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history”.
“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 Programme,” a Pornhub spokesperson stated in a blog post.
‘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.”
Users are now banned from uploading content unless they are verified, and are unable to download videos for private consumption.
The latest on our commitment to trust and safety.https://t.co/9Rf7I33wbC pic.twitter.com/xsmPg23zOq
— Pornhub ARIA (@Pornhub) December 14, 2020
The site also deleted any content not uploaded from its official partners, as well as from users who are not members of their pay-per-view “Model Programme.”
According to Motherboard, the site was previously said to have hosted 13.5 million videos. As of Sunday, it’s now home to just 2.9 million videos.
Lol, this line from Porn Hub dot com’s announcement patting itself on the back for not letting just any old anonymous person upload videos anymore is just insane. Gee wow I wonder why other fucking social media sites haven’t been similarly pressured to do this! pic.twitter.com/Ana7LOdsoI
— Sylvester Equation (@neoliberal_dad) December 15, 2020
The much-needed reform came after The New York Times released a damning report claiming the platform was implicit in the circulation of abusive and illegal material (including rape videos and child porn) which were prolific on the site due to poor regulation of its material.
The report stated that Pornhub, estimated to be the 10th most visited site on the internet, “monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content,” by failing to properly moderate content on its page.
Following the report, Visa and Mastercard pulled their partnership with the company, saying they would not accept any further payments through the site until the matter was investigated.
In response to the allegations, Pornhub announced the new policy changes and banned unverified users from uploading any new content to the site, adamant the company had “no tolerance” for illicit and abusive material. From the beginning of next year, the site will enforce its verification process, only allowing uploads after users have “successfully completed the identification protocol.”
porn hub deleted my sex tape. wtf
— 𝔙.𝔇. ℜ𝔬𝔟𝔦𝔫𝔰𝔬𝔫 (@VisionlessDave) December 15, 2020
MindGeek, Pornhub’s parent company, has also announced they will be rolling out the same policies on their other platforms such as RedTube and YouPorn. Users will now have to verify their identity by uploading a selfie holding a piece of paper with “pornhub.com” written on it. The company has said it will be continuing to tighten its verification process in the new year.
