Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews has taken to Twitter to call for the defunding of major porn site, Pornhub.
It comes as a viral campaign, #Traffickinghub, is demanding the shutdown of the site due to its enabling of mass sex trafficking. However, Crews’ calls have left some slightly confused.
As Pornhub continues to attract criticism, actor Terry Crews has called for the defunding of the site – a suggestion that has left his followers puzzled.
Posting on Twitter last week, the actor wrote “DEFUND PORNHUB”, tagging the Twitter page of Fight The New Drug, which is a non-for-profit also raising awareness about the harmful effects of porn and exploitation. In what seems to be a conjoining of two movements, Crews calls follow a motion to defund the police which is currently occurring in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd, as well as similar conversations being held worldwide.
DEFUND PORNHUB@FightTheNewDrug
— terry crews (@terrycrews) July 14, 2020
Yet, as some users pointed out, a city’s police department can be defunded because they receive their money from governing agencies like the State or Federal Government, and ultimately, taxpayers. However, unlike the police, Pornhub is privately funded, meaning that technically you can’t just “defund” it.
But… Porhub isn’t publicly funded? I’m confused.
— Patrick Cunningham (@TheRealPatlanta) July 14, 2020
Elsewhere, users expressed their disagreement with Crews:
Dude, no.
Masturbation is healthy, self love is healthy. PornHub gives safe platforms to sex workers–to say nothing of the artists who got kicked off Tumblr–and generates revenue for them.
Are there issues with the industry? Absolutely. Is going after PornHub the answer? No.
— Xach Fromson ✊ (@_mythogenesis_) July 14, 2020
I would agree with you but I’ve seen pornhub do more good for the country than any other politician in the past few years.
— Turttle Games (@turttlegames) July 14, 2020
And one user even drew attention to possible problems with the research conducted by Fight The New Drug:
I’m just gonna leave this here pic.twitter.com/uUrw4xesCY
— WATCH GRANBELM | Pinka (@PinkDandere) July 14, 2020
Incidentally, back in 2016 Crews admitted that he had overcome a porn addiction of his own.
Whilst Crews’ tweet seemed to confuse more than anything else, it’s part of a larger conversation right now surrounding the ethical issues which emerge with a user-generated content site like Pornhub, which has limited measures to police said content. A recent video from #Traffickinghub shining a light on these issues has gained over 25 million views in the last few weeks.
