The pornography platform Pornhub has been accused of profiting from sexual exploitation for years. However, Pornhub’s YouTube account did not contain any sexually explicit material, which is prohibited under YouTube’s Community Guidelines. Rather, the official Pornhub channel on YouTube featured series such as Advice for Models or Pornhub Models, as well as sections on fashion, music, and the Pornhub Awards. However, according to a report by Variety, YouTube recently removed Pornhub’s official channel for “multiple violations” of the community guidelines.
Pornhub denies the policy violations
The Pornhub YouTube Channel was launched in 2014 and had almost 900,000 subscribers just before the ban. Recently, however, a 404 error message (“not found”) appears after entering the channel URL and the YouTube search for Pornhub also comes up empty. YouTube stated that Pornhub violated the guidelines set by the streaming platform. Specifically, Pornhub is said to have linked to websites that show content that is not allowed on YouTube. YouTube spokesman Jack Malon said:
Upon review, we terminated the channel Pornhub Official following multiple violations of our community guidelines. We enforce our policies equally for everyone, and channels that repeatedly violate or are dedicated to violative content are terminated.
Pornhub’s parent company, MindGeek, said it “strongly denied” YouTube’s claims that the company links to porn sites. A speaker said:
Pornhub maintains the absolute best trust and safety measures on the internet and takes special care to ensure it does not violate any of YouTube's Community Guidelines. Unfortunately, this is just the latest example of discrimination against those in the adult industry.
Recently, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) wrote in a blog post that it had reported Pornhub content on the streaming platform that employees believe violates YouTube policies. The post also says:
After review, YouTube alerted NCOSE that they had terminated the channel for violations of their Community Guidelines.
MindGeek, meanwhile, explained that the performers and sex workers are marginalized groups, calling YouTube’s “incidental and arbitrary enforcement… dangerous and harmful”.
Some social platforms and companies have already stopped working with Pornhub
Instagram permanently banned Pornhub in September this year, also citing violations of the community guidelines on the platform. A month later, Instagram deactivated a second account that Pornhub had set up to try and circumvent the primary account’s ban.
In September, Pornhub and dozens of adult industry allies released an open letter accusing Instagram of using double standards to ban Pornhub but allowing celebrities like Kim Kardashian to post nude photos. In an interview with The Female Company, we talked about Instagram’s differentiated assessment of nudity on the platform.
The payment service providers Mastercard and Visa also stopped payments to Pornhub in 2020 – Mastercard stated at the time that it had found illegal content on the website.
A US federal judge, despite the ban, refused to release Visa from a court case in which plaintiffs claimed it helped MindGeek monetize child pornography.