Following the seismic exposure of Pornhub for hosting non-consensual and abusive content, credit card companies have cut ties with the adult site, but creators who rely on the platform have been left in the lurch
U.S. Senators Ben Sasse and Jeff Merkley have introduced a bipartisan bill calling for extensive new censorship rules for adult websites.
Dubbed the Stop Internet Sexual Explotation Act , the bill was prompted, according to an
announcement from Sasse's office, by reports of how videos and photos are uploaded to websites like Pornhub without the consent of individuals who appear in them. In particular the bill seems triggered by charges filed against Pornhub parent company
MindGeek alleging that the company knowingly hosted and profited from the non-consensual videos over which website GirlsDoPorn.
Among the censorship measures the new bill seeks to enact are:
Require any user uploading a video to the platform to verify their identiry
Require any user uploading a video to the platform also upload a signed consent form from every individual appearing in the video
Creating a private right
of action against an uploader who uploads a pornographic image without the consent of an individual featured in the image
Requiring platforms hosting pornography to include a notice or banner on the website instructing how an individual can
request removal of a video if an individual has not consented to it being uploaded on the platform
Prohibiting video downloads from these platforms, to be in place within three months of enactment of the legislation
Requiring platforms
hosting pornography to offer a 24-hour hotline staffed by the platform, for individuals who contact the hotline to request removal of a video that has been distributed without their consent
Requiring removal of flagged videos within two hours of
such a request
Requiring platforms to use software to block a video from being re-uploaded after its removal, which must be in place within six months of enactment of the legislations
Directing the Federal Trade Commission to enforce
violations of these requirements
Creating a database of individuals who have indicated they do not consent, which must be checked before new content can be uploaded to platforms
Instructing the Department of Justice to promulgate rules
on where this database should be housed, and determine how to connect victims with services, to include couseling and casework
Establishing that failure to comply with this requirement will result in a civil penalty to the platform, with
proceeds going towards victim services
At Pornhub, the safety of our community is our top priority. Last week, we enacted the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history. We banned unverified uploaders from posting new
content, eliminated downloads, and partnered with dozens of non-profit organizations, among other major policy changes (please read here for more details).
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. 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.
Leading non-profit organizations and advocacy groups acknowledge our efforts to date at combating illegal content have been effective. Over the last three years, Facebook
self-reported 84 million instances of child sexual abuse material. During that same period, the independent, third-party Internet Watch Foundation reported 118 incidents on Pornhub. That is still 118 too many, which is why we are committed to taking
every necessary action.
It is clear that Pornhub is 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. These are the same forces that have spent 50 years demonizing Playboy, the National Endowment for the Arts, sex education, LGBTQ rights, women's rights, and even the American Library Association. Today, it happens to be Pornhub.
In today's world, all social media platforms share the responsibility to combat illegal material. Solutions must be driven by real facts and real experts. We hope we have demonstrated our dedication to leading by example.
Payments giant Mastercard is considering banning people from spending their money at Pornhub.
Mastercard is reviewing its business with pornography platform Pornhub, following a campaign against the website being highlighted by the New York
Times.
Mastercard responded after reporter Nicholas Kristof said he didn't see why search engines, banks or credit-card companies should bolster Pornhub.
Pornhub is free to use but users can pay £9.99 a month for higher-quality video
streams and advert-free and exclusive content.
Visa followed Mastercard's lead and said that it too won't allow Pornhub users to use their credit cards to make charges on the adult content site. Visa said in a statement:
We are instructing the financial institutions who serve MindGeek to
suspend processing of payments through the Visa network.
And according to Bloomberg.com, Mastercard said it's continuing to investigate potential illegal content on other websites, most likely XVideos.
Pornhub has responded to criticism by a significant change of rules to require formal identification of uploaders. Pornhub explains:
Today, we are taking major steps to further protect our community. Going forward, we will only allow
properly identified users to upload content. We have banned downloads. We have made some key expansions to our moderation process, and we recently launched a Trusted Flagger Program with dozens of non-profit organizations. Earlier this year, we also
partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and next year we will issue our first transparency report. Full details on our expanded policies can be found below.
1. Verified Uploaders Only
Effective immediately, only content partners and people within the Model Program will be able to upload content to Pornhub. In the new year, we will implement a verification process so that any user can upload content upon successful
completion of identification protocol.
2. Banning Downloads
Effective immediately, we have removed the ability for users to download content from Pornhub, with the exception of paid downloads within
the verified Model Program. In tandem with our fingerprinting technology, this will mitigate the ability for content already removed from the platform to be able to return.
3. Expanded Moderation
We
have worked to create comprehensive measures that help protect our community from illegal content. In recent months we deployed an additional layer of moderation. The newly established "Red Team" will be dedicated solely to self-auditing the
platform for potentially illegal material. The Red Team provides an extra layer of protection on top of the existing protocol, proactively sweeping content already uploaded for potential violations and identifying any breakdowns in the moderation process
that could allow a piece of content that violates the Terms of Service. Additionally, while the list of banned keywords on Pornhub is already extensive, we will continue to identify additional keywords for removal on an ongoing basis. We will also
regularly monitor search terms within the platform for increases in phrasings that attempt to bypass the safeguards in place. Pornhub's current content moderation includes an extensive team of human moderators dedicated to manually reviewing every single
upload, a thorough system for flagging, reviewing and removing illegal material, robust parental controls, and utilization of a variety of automated detection technologies. These technologies include:
CSAI Match, YouTube's proprietary technology for combating Child Sexual Abuse Imagery online
PhotoDNA, Microsoft's technology that aids in finding and removing known images of child exploitation
Vobile, a fingerprinting software that scans any new uploads for potential matches to unauthorized
materials to protect against banned videos being re-uploaded to the platform.
4. Trusted Flagger Program
We recently launched a Trusted Flagger Program, a new initiative empowering non-profit partners to alert us of content they think may violate our Terms of Service. The Trusted
Flagger Program consists of more than 40 leading non-profit organizations in the space of internet and child safety. Our partners have a direct line of access to our moderation team, and any content identified by a Trusted Flagger is immediately
disabled. Partners include: Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (United States of America), National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (United States of America), Internet Watch Foundation (United Kingdom), Stopline (Austria), Child Focus (Belgium),
Safenet (Bulgaria), Te Protejo Hotline - I Protect You Hotline (Colombia), CZ.NIC - Stop Online (Czech Republic ), Point de Contact (France), Eco-Association of the Internet Industry (Germany), Safeline (Greece), Save the Children (Iceland), Latvian
Internet Association (Latvia), Meldpunt Kinderporno - Child Pornography Reporting Point (Netherlands), Centre for Safer Internet Slovenia (Slovenia), FPB Hotline - Film and Publication Board (South Africa), ECPAT (Sweden), ECPAT (Taiwan).
5. NCMEC Partnership
Last year, we voluntarily partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in order to transparently report and limit incidents of CSAM on our
platform. In early 2021, NCMEC will release our total number of reported CSAM incidents alongside numbers from other major social and content platforms. We will also continue to work with law enforcement globally to report and curb any issues of illegal
content.
6. Transparency Report
In 2021, we will release a Transparency Report detailing our content moderation results from 2020. This will identify not just the full number of reports filed with
NCMEC, but also other key details related to the trust and safety of our platform. Much like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other tech platforms, Pornhub seeks to be fully transparent about the content that should and should not appear on the platform.
This will make us the only adult content platform to release such a report.
7. Independent Review
As part of our commitment, in April 2020 we hired the law firm of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP to
conduct an independent review of our content compliance function, with a focus on meeting legal standards and eliminating all non-consensual content, CSAM and any other content uploaded without the meaningful consent of all parties. We requested that the
goal of the independent review be to identify the requisite steps to achieve a "best-in-class" content compliance program that sets the standard for the technology industry. Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP is continuing its review, but has already
identified and categorized a comprehensive inventory of remedial recommendations, supported by dozens of additional sub-recommendations, in addition to the steps identified above, based on an evaluation and assessment of our current policies and
practices. Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP is soliciting information to assist with its review and in developing recommendations regarding our compliance policies and procedures.
U.S. Senators Ben Sasse and Jeff Merkley have introduced a bipartisan bill calling for extensive new censorship rules for adult websites. 
Payments giant Mastercard is considering banning people from spending their money at Pornhub. 
Visa followed Mastercard's lead and said that it too won't allow Pornhub users to use their credit cards to make charges on the adult content site. Visa said in a statement: 