Pornhub stops unverified uploads, bans downloads after damning New York Times report

[midian182]

In a nutshell: Pornhub is introducing significant changes to its service following a New York Times exposé that alleged the site was profiting from non-consensual videos, including those showing rape and child abuse.

In a statement, Pornhub said it has always been committed to eliminating illegal content, and that it is taking further steps to protect its community. These include stopping uploads from unverified users and banning most downloads.

Right now, only content partners and those in the Model Program are able to upload content to Pornhub. A verification process will be introduced in the New Year that gives all users the ability to upload videos, but only after they complete an "identification protocol" to verify their identity.

Additionally, Pornhub has stopped downloads, the only exception being paid downloads within the verified Model Program. The company says that "In tandem with our fingerprinting technology, this will mitigate the ability for content already removed from the platform to be able to return."

Other changes include increased moderation through the establishment of a "Red Team" dedicated to "proactively sweeping content already uploaded for potential violations and identifying any breakdowns in the moderation process." It will also release a transparency report next year detailing its content moderation results from 2020.

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

Nicholas Kristof's report in the New York Times highlighted the number of clips on Pornhub showing rape and the sexual abuse of underage girls, alleging that the company has monetized these videos. The article also documented other illegal content, including spycam videos and revenge porn.

Following the NYT's publication of the article, both Visa and Mastercard investigated the child abuse allegations with Pornhub parent MindGeek's bank, suggesting the companies might stop accepting payments made to one of the most popular pornography sites in the world.

Speaking about the changes, Kristof tweeted, "A great deal depends on how responsibly Pornhub implements these, and it hasn't earned my trust at all, but these seem significant.

"A great deal will also depend on whether past content, already on the site, is vetted or removed," he continued. "I'd add that continued monitoring and pressure will be necessary, and that we should also widen the lens to look at other companies. XVideos already has a bigger audience than Pornhub, and fewer scruples, and they should be forced to adopt similar measures —and make them work."

Here's Pornhub's announcements of the new measures: https://t.co/NOZ75OwW0E A great deal will also depend on whether past content, already on the site, is vetted or removed.

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) December 8, 2020

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/87901-pornhub-stops-unverified-uploads-bans-downloads-after-damning.html

 

[R00sT3R]

So, a problem they've known about for years only gets serious attention when their source of payments (Visa & Mastercard) threaten to withhold said payments.

...Corporate priorities in a nutshell.

 

[Squid Surprise]

As long as society views something that a huge amount of people do as "morally wrong", it will continue to operate on the fringes of society and therefore avoid proper regulation.

This applies to drugs, porn and prostitution...

The example we can look to is alcohol - once illegal, it was the cornerstone of numerous criminal empires until being legalized again. This is also the reason marijuana has been legalized in many places and will almost certainly continue to be decriminalized.

Pornography has operated on the fringes of society for too long - it's time to ditch the Puritan values and start bringing proper regulation.

 

[kimo1]

So, a problem they've known about for years only gets serious attention when their source of payments (Visa & Mastercard) threaten to withhold said payments.

...Corporate priorities in a nutshell.

Yeah. But I wish somebody confronted Tor network in similar way.

 

[Lionvibez]

So, a problem they've known about for years only gets serious attention when their source of payments (Visa & Mastercard) threaten to withhold said payments.

...Corporate priorities in a nutshell.

business 101 these days.

1. Keep doing it until you get fined
2. If fine is 0.5% of revenue pay the fine keep doing it
3. Law suit if other party has less money just keep it in court until they can't afford to play ball
4.If someone in the C suite gets in trouble push it under the rug if the profit is more than the blacklash, if it gets to the point where the damage is too much just blame that person and fire them
5.CEO Tanks the share price while improving his own wealth, Give him a golden parachute and relief him of duty. Maybe add him to the board in a year or two profit.


Thanks for playing have a great day.

 

[EClyde]

There is nothing healthy about porn

 

[Gaara]

Who ever watch child pornography should go to jail for the rest of the life.

 

[Trapped Nowhere]

From what I hear, the unverified users are the ones who upload all the good videos, and most of the annoying ones with music

 

[thew118]

As long as society views something that a huge amount of people do as "morally wrong", it will continue to operate on the fringes of society and therefore avoid proper regulation.

This applies to drugs, porn and prostitution...

The example we can look to is alcohol - once illegal, it was the cornerstone of numerous criminal empires until being legalized again. This is also the reason marijuana has been legalized in many places and will almost certainly continue to be decriminalized.

Pornography has operated on the fringes of society for too long - it's time to ditch the Puritan values and start bringing proper regulation.

This makes a lot of sense. Like drugs and alcohol, there is potential to abuse porn in one’s own life (“porn is the opiate of the masses”). Porn also has its unique concerns, mostly around the exploitation of people, which require a lot of awareness, discussion, and action (through regulation and otherwise). But ultimately, neither producing nor consuming porn constitutes an inherent moral failure. I’d love to live in a world where the stigma is wiped away and we could actually talk about this stuff (with other willing participants in the discussion, of course).

Xhamster

Yeah, I’ve heard Xhamster is much more on the up and up. There’s an episode of My Dad Wrote A Porno that mentions this - it’s an interview with Jon Ronson from November 2018. Highly recommended, both that episode and the podcast in general if you want a good laugh.

 

[No Longer Human]

Greatest achievement of America in 21st century. Symbol of freedom.

actually your statement led me to some web searching (Wikipedia). Pornhub not only originated in Canada (Montréal, 2007), was bought by MindGeek (formerly Manwin) which "is a privately held Canadian company that focuses primarily on pornography." They have an HQ in Montréal with offices in Dublin, London, Hamburg, Bucharest, Nicosia, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Diego.
"MindGeek owns and operates many popular pornographic websites, including video sharing services Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn, as well as adult film production companies Brazzers, Digital Playground, Men.com, WhyNotBi.com, Reality Kings, and Sean Cody, among others"
WHOA, who knew some very rich Canadians have created their own 'Porno Empire'

 

[Avro Arrow]

actually your statement led me to some web searching (Wikipedia). Pornhub not only originated in Canada (Montréal, 2007), was bought by MindGeek (formerly Manwin) which "is a privately held Canadian company that focuses primarily on pornography." They have an HQ in Montréal with offices in Dublin, London, Hamburg, Bucharest, Nicosia, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Diego.
"MindGeek owns and operates many popular pornographic websites, including video sharing services Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn, as well as adult film production companies Brazzers, Digital Playground, Men.com, WhyNotBi.com, Reality Kings, and Sean Cody, among others"
WHOA, who knew some very rich Canadians have created their own 'Porno Empire'

Yeah, I knew about it. Montreal's my hometown and it's pretty-well known there. These companies have some pretty unexpected origins when you look into them. Private is based in Spain but originated in Sweden. Weird, eh?

 

[franticfrosty]

There is nothing healthy about porn

Same thing for sex, absolutely nothing healthy about it

 

[Squid Surprise]

There is nothing healthy about porn

Would you care to provide some evidence for this?
For sure, rape, child porn, etc are something we should be stamping out... but "normal" porn is perfectly healthy - it's society's Puritan values that are unhealthy...

Explain to me why a movie that shows someone killing tons of people can be rated PG... but if you see a nipple, it has to be rated R?

Since when is sex worse than violence?

 

[supof88]

So, a problem they've known about for years only gets serious attention when their source of payments (Visa & Mastercard) threaten to withhold said payments.

...Corporate priorities in a nutshell.

Honestly I am guessing they tried but there are just too many criminals out there dumping illegal stuff on their site, they gave up.

 

[supof88]

This isn't related to porn. It's about rape and other crimes. the sites are still up and legal. Read the article (written by an underage victim) to learn more. The writer, Nicholas Kristoff, goes around the world standing up for abused girls and women.

Hopefully these websites will find ways to keep criminals off their websites, and make it easy to report them.

I remember a few years ago these sites made it easy for visitors to flag a post for illegality. Then they changed it, you had to become a member to flag a post.

As long as society views something that a huge amount of people do as "morally wrong", it will continue to operate on the fringes of society and therefore avoid proper regulation.

This applies to drugs, porn and prostitution...

The example we can look to is alcohol - once illegal, it was the cornerstone of numerous criminal empires until being legalized again. This is also the reason marijuana has been legalized in many places and will almost certainly continue to be decriminalized.

Pornography has operated on the fringes of society for too long - it's time to ditch the Puritan values and start bringing proper regulation.

 

[supof88]

Would you care to provide some evidence for this?
For sure, rape, child porn, etc are something we should be stamping out... but "normal" porn is perfectly healthy - it's society's Puritan values that are unhealthy...

Explain to me why a movie that shows someone killing tons of people can be rated PG... but if you see a nipple, it has to be rated R?

Since when is sex worse than violence?

it's the violence that is illegal not the sex.

 

[supof88]

Just looked at their website.
To report illegal post first you have to become a member and log in. They still aren't taking it seriously.

 

[Squid Surprise]

it's the violence that is illegal not the sex.

Agreed - but it’s the “morality” of sex that allows sites like this to operate basically regulation free at the fringes of society...