Pornhub just nuked millions of unverified videos following backlash

Some time last night, Pornhub purged its platform of millions of videos uploaded by unverified users, Vice reports. The takedown is still in progress, it seems, and includes the removal of any video uploaded by a user who is not an official partner or a member of its model program.

Pornhub’s many years of negligence have come to a head in the last few weeks. A harrowing New York Times opinion piece from December 4 detailed just how much Pornhub’s owners, MindGeek, profit from the hosting of exploitative and illegal videos.

“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 company wrote in an announcement late last night. “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.”

Last week, the company changed its core policies to ensure all new videos would only be uploaded by verified users; now that change has taken over in a retroactive sense, too. It’s a significant action, especially for a company that’s long chosen feigned ignorance over meaningful change.

A reckoning — The exact number of videos removed thus far is unknown; Vice reports that, before the mass-deletion, Pornhub hosted around 13.5 million videos, and at 9 a.m. today that number had dropped to 4.7 million videos — which would mean about 66 percent of the site’s videos had been deleted.

However, the total number of videos (as displayed on the site’s public-facing counter) briefly went back up to 7.2 million this morning.

A tipping point — The New York Times piece put Pornhub’s negligence under a much-needed spotlight — the piece received lots of attention across the internet and in other media outlets. But it seems like, based on timing alone, financial pressure is what really pushed things over the edge for Pornhub.

Last Thursday, two days after Pornhub had announced its policy changes, both Mastercard and Visa stopped accepting payments from Pornhub entirely. This purge taking place just three days into that ban is… interesting timing, to say the least. Perhaps financial pressure actually proved to be the final straw for Pornhub.

What’s up with this tone? — Pornhub’s latest blog post doesn’t simply announce the removal of these videos; it takes an adamantly defensive stance on the matter. Pornhub goes as far as targeting other internet companies — social media companies in particular — for their own negligence.

“Over the last three years, Facebook self-reported 84 million instances of child sexual abuse material,” Pornhub writes. “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.”

Pornhub also takes some time to speak to the larger moderation reckoning that’s playing out in U.S. politics. “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.”

Given how long it took for Pornhub to actually take action here (years and years and years), “leading by example” might be something of a stretch. And throwing shade at other companies in your attempted-apologetic statement is certainly a brash move. Just delete the videos and move on, Pornhub.