Pornhub announced Sunday it suspended all videos not uploaded by verified users as part of a recent policy implementation.
“The sweep appeared to affect the vast majority of Pornhub’s content — there were about 2.9 million videos on the platform as of midday Monday, down from roughly 13.5 million on Sunday afternoon, according to a counter displayed in the site’s search bar,” the New York Post reported.
The porn website said the move meant “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.”
Last week, Mastercard and Visa announced they were looking into allegations made in a New York Times column that the website was posting videos portraying child abuse.
In his column, Nicholas Kristof wrote, “Its site is infested with rape videos”:
It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags. A search for “girls under18” (no space) or “14yo” leads in each case to more than 100,000 videos. Most aren’t of children being assaulted, but too many are.
Mastercard and Visa have since said they will block customers from using their credit cards to make purchases on the website, according to CBS News.
However, Pornhub claimed Sunday it was being “targeted not because of our policies and how we compare to our peers, but because we are an adult content platform”:
The two groups that have spearheaded the campaign against our company are the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (formerly known as Morality in Media) and Exodus Cry/TraffickingHub. These are organizations dedicated to abolishing pornography, banning material they claim is obscene, and shutting down commercial sex work.
In a tweet on Monday, Exodus Cry’s Laila Mickelwait said more than 10 million videos of rape and trafficking are gone from the site, adding, “This is a good day for victims who have been begging Pornhub to remove their abuse”:
Over 10 million videos infested with rape and trafficking are now gone. This is a good day for victims who have been begging Pornhub to remove their abuse. #Traffickinghub pic.twitter.com/c4MUbWBl5W
— Laila Mickelwait (@LailaMickelwait) December 14, 2020
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