Meta announced that Pornhub’s Instagram account was permanently banned after suspending it a month ago amid legal pressures on the platform.
The company announced on Tuesday evening that it was permanently disabling the account after it had accrued 10 years’ worth of terms of service violations, according to Motherboard. The company claimed that it gave Pornhub’s parent company, Mindgeek multiple warnings, although it did not specify which terms were violated. Pornhub immediately responded and accused Meta of hypocrisy.
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“We, the undersigned, represent those in the adult industry that have for years been undermined by Instagram’s opaque, discriminatory and hypocritical enforcement of its own Terms and Policies,” Pornhub said in a letter signed by 63 pornographers and industry groups. “Sex workers and performers have been unfairly targeted in the form of bans, shadow bans, suspensions, loss of Live privileges and content removal, despite taking extra care not to violate Instagram’s Community Guidelines.”
Pornhub argued that its social media presence was “fully PG” and argued that Instagram had been hypocritical based on how it treated the nude images posted by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian compared to nude photos posted by adult sex workers on Instagram.
Pornhub’s initial suspension occurred a month after Visa and Mastercard decided to cut off payment privileges for TrafficJunky, the advertising branch of Mindgeek. The two companies agreed in light of a July court ruling that Visa could be liable in a suit over child sexual abuse material on Pornhub because it is used to pay for and fund the content.
The company also faced pressure in June when a New Yorker investigation revealed that Pornhub had hosted nonconsensual content and child sexual abuse material for years. The revelations led to two executives resigning from the company and an unknown number of layoffs at Mindgeek.
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The pornography website’s promotional material remains on other platforms, including YouTube and Twitter.
