Pornhub is currently in the process of deleting all unverified videos, a massive portion of its content library, before implementing a more thorough verification process in the New Year. It’s an unprecedented move for one of the largest porn sites in the world. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it, would you? Videos that are not uploaded by official content partners or members of Pornhub’s model program will be removed pending verification and review beginning in 2021. “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,â€Â Pornhub said 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.â€
Prior to this decision, since Pornhub’s launch in 2007, anyone with basic computer literacy could upload any video they wanted, and trust us, they did. Before the content purge on Sunday night, Pornhub held around 13.5 million videos per its own metrics on the home page. As of writing Monday morning, the site shows a mere 2.9 million. The number appears to be fluctuating, per Vice, so it’s unclear what the final number will be.
The announcement comes after a piece in the New York Times Opinion section that followed the lives of child sexual abuse victims whose videos were uploaded to the platform was published Friday, December 4. It led to MasterCard and Visa beginning an investigation into illegal content on the site. On Tuesday, December 8, Pornhub banned all unverified users from uploading or downloading, and said it would expand its moderation. However, by the end of the week, MasterCard and Visa declared they would both stop processing payments on the site. Visa specifically dropped all of the MindGeek network, including Redtube, Youporn, Xtube, and Brazzers.
Pornhub’s decision is not a guaranteed method for preventing abuse of all kinds, including revenge porn, on the site, though it could significantly reduce it. Some amateur porn creators who use the site as a source of income disagree with the credit-card companies’ decision and worry about the industry should they begin to target smaller platforms. Meanwhile, OnlyFans has spent all of 2020 switchin’ them positions for you — peddling influencers like Bella Thorne who think they did it first and helping real people make bank during a pandemic.