Pornhub has removed all videos (millions of videos in total) uploaded on its website by its unverified users, as part of a crackdown on its user-uploaded content after two major payment services (Visa and Mastercard) suspended its services for them. Firstly reported by Motherboard, and New York Times that the site was hosting videos that shows children being assaulted uploaded by people who are underage.
The site on last Tuesday said that it would begin limiting its uploads to the site’s verified users only. So as of now, uploads have to come from Pornhub’s official content partners or members of its “Model Program,” which requires age verification to sign up. The verification policy will also apply to all sites owned by MindGeek, which is Pornhub’s parent company.
“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,” Pornhub wrote in a blog post.
After this Pornhub has wiped out nearly 9 million videos as of writing. Motherboard said that the site boasted 13.5 million videos on Sunday, and it has nearly 5 million as of Monday. While the site hosts professional videos, and its main function operates very much like YouTube i.e. allowing its users to upload videos of their own and make money from the ad revenue.
Last week reported by The Times, Visa and Mastercard were to investigate whether the site was hosting illegal content. And on Thursday, both cuts off their services, which will prevent customers from making purchases on the site. This suspension of service could become a significant problem for Pornhub, which also sells videos, and also for the sex workers who use the platform’s sales as a source of their income.