Pornhub deletes millions of videos after credit card providers review ties

Internet - After serious allegations against the porn platform Pornhub, the site operator deleated millions of videos.

Video portal Pornhub announced that they would be taking steps to verify the content on their platform.
Video portal Pornhub announced that they would be taking steps to verify the content on their platform.  © piotrkt/123RF

As Vice reported, one of the world's the largest pornography sites is removing content uploaded by unverified users.

"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," Pornhub said in a statement that was also posted on Twitter.

Out of a total of 13.5 million videos, at least 6.83 million were deleted in the Sunday night purge. The site also announced that their content will be closely scrutinized starting in 2021.

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The clean-up efforts began after an opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof was published on December 4, 2020, in the New York Times. Kristof asserted that the platform profits from clips that show the abuse of underage children and the rape of women.

The serious accusations immediately prompted credit card providers Mastercard and Visa to start looking into their ties with Pornhub.

Nicholas Kristof welcomed the payment service providers review and urged Google to do the same on Twitter.

Pornhub's image crisis

The porn provider is now facing a massive image problem. In addition to purging their site of unverified videos, Pornhub also announced that it will no longer allow new uploads from unverified users in the future. A specially trained team of moderators will be on the look out for questionable content and delete it in a targeted manner.

According to Nicholas Kristof's article, when the author confronted Pornhub about the allegedly illegal content they said that any assertion that the company would allow content featuring children "is irresponsible and flagrantly untrue."

Cover photo: piotrkt/123RF

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