After a New York Times investigation that showed abuse footage, the platform restricts permissions and increases content controls
(Photo by Ethan Miller / Getty Images) Pornhub has decided to change radically its policies regarding uploaded content, allowing only verified users to upload a video and preventing all visitors to the site from downloading the clips.Pornhub takes action after an investigation of the New York Times demonstrated the presence on the red light platform of videos of child abuse or violence. The pornographic video site has therefore announced new rules to prevent the publication of these videos, blocking the upload by unidentified users and the download, which allowed their circulation on other platforms.
This is a radical change for Pornhub, which since 2007 has built its empire of 100 million daily visits based on unprofessional videos. The change will affect Pornhub partners and members of its Model Program first and will roll out to regular users in 2021. Pornhub will also block the download of videos. Only paid verified users will be able to access it.
The portal has announced that it will also activate a Red Team that will have to dedicate itself to content moderation with the aim of "proactively wiping out already uploaded content that contains potential violations and identify any interruptions in the moderation process ".
Although a few days have passed since the New York Times investigation came out, in its statement Pornhub attributes the changes listed to an independent review launched in April 2020 with the aim of eliminating all illegal content from the platform. At the end of 2021, when the company publishes its first transparency report, it will be possible to see if these changes have had the desired effect.