Pornhub removed millions of videos from the pornography platform after a bombshell column in the New York Times alleged the site monetizes videos depicting rape and sexual assault.
Last week, Visa and Mastercard announced they would terminate their business relationship with the site after the allegations emerged, both forewarning they would do so after conducting their own investigations. Now, the site said it’s taking steps to prevent illegal material from appearing on the platform.
“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 Program,” the pornography site wrote in an announcement. “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.”
In the announcement, Pornhub acknowledged that an independent, third-party Internet Watch Foundation “reported 118 incidents” of child sexual abuse material on its site but asserted it is being targeted because it is an “adult content platform.”
According to Motherboard, Pornhub contained approximately 13.5 million videos on its site, but the number dropped to 4.7 million as of 9 a.m. on Monday morning. The number briefly rose again to 7.2 million, so it remains unclear how many millions of videos were removed in the process.
Flagged videos on the site now display the message that tells users that the video is “flagged for verification in accordance with our trust and safety policy.”
