Pornhub has cleansed its site of millions of unverified videos after Mastercard and Visa both announced that they would stop working with the company over cases of sexual exploitation being hosted on the platform.
In a statement on Monday, Pornhub announced that it had “suspended all previously uploaded content that was not created by content partners or members of the Model Program.” Members of the Model Program are the platform’s verified users. Pornhub’s previous rules allowed anyone to upload a video to the site.
The new purge of content comes after both Mastercard and Visa cut ties with Pornhub over a New York Times exposé that revealed child exploitation, revenge porn, and even “rape videos” were allegedly being hosted and monetized by the company.
Laila Mickelwait, founder of the anti-Pornhub advocacy group Traffickinghub, celebrated the news on Monday, commenting, “Over 10 million videos infested with rape and trafficking are now gone. This is a good day for victims who have been begging Pornhub to remove their abuse.”
Pornhub, however, attacked Traffickinghub and other advocacy groups in its statement, calling them “organizations dedicated to abolishing pornography, banning material they claim is obscene, and shutting down commercial sex work.”
The majority of Pornhub’s statement was used to defend itself, with the company claiming that it had less problems with illegal content than Facebook and other tech platforms.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) responded to the mass removal by calling for the United States Congress to pass legislation “that would make Pornhub liable for all content that is non-consensual or produced through fraud or coercion.”
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