Pornhub

Gruffalux

Surprised this has not a thread.
Pornhub - the biggest provider of porn on the planet and beloved of many it would seem - has removed 80% of its content. It has gone from 13.5 million videos to about 3 million. All content from unverified users has been removed.

This is supposedly because of an investigation by the New York Times that found it hosted large amounts of rape and abuse content.
But I think it was because Mastercard and Visa stopped allowing their cards to be used on the site. The reason I think this is there have been long and vocal campaigns by people like Laila Micklewait and girls who themselves found their underage and rape videos to have content removed, and almost nothing was done about it. Now that they are hit in the purse strings they suddenly get a conscience.
Classy place to hang out. It's owners have all made hundreds of millions from the cesspit of a site.

begbysback

And you were just passing through and noticed some videos missing?

JeffKenna

I was wondering what was wrong with my card not working.

Gruffalux

begbysback wrote: »

And you were just passing through and noticed some videos missing?

Heh. No. I'm a lady and rape sex is not my thing.

Gruffalux

A comparison. I often hear it said that if you smoke weed, take drugs (which I don't) you are complicit in a savage industry that causes death and poverty and violence etc. But it is not said much that if you get your sexual release watching content on a website that hosted up to 2 days ago a huge amount of rape videos and abuse of underage and unconscious or even kidnapped people, you are not at all complicit. I wonder why Pornhub has gotten such a free pass for so many years?

Tork

I didn't know there were underage and rape videos on there but I'm sure an awful lot of the content has been added without the consent of all the participants.

Kraftwerk

“It is clear that Pornhub is being targeted not because of our policies and how we compare to our peers, but because we are an adult content platform,” the service writes. “These are the same forces that have spent 50 years demonizing Playboy, the National Endowment for the Arts, sex education, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, and even the American Library Association. Today, it happens to be Pornhub.”

Imagine actually thinking that payment systems refusing to process payments from porn sites found hosting child porn and rape videos is like criticism of women's rights.

Gruffalux

Tork wrote: »

I didn't know there were underage and rape videos on there but I'm sure an awful lot of the content has been added without the consent of all the participants.

I don't have time to look into the provenance of the website hosting this article, but I link it as it links to other articles and evidence.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/one-million-people-sign-petition-to-shut-down-pornhub-for-alleged-sex-trafficking-videos-301072809.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51391981

Gruffalux

Kraftwerk wrote: »

“It is clear that Pornhub is being targeted not because of our policies and how we compare to our peers, but because we are an adult content platform,” the service writes. “These are the same forces that have spent 50 years demonizing Playboy, the National Endowment for the Arts, sex education, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, and even the American Library Association. Today, it happens to be Pornhub.”

Imagine actually thinking that payment systems refusing to process payments from porn sites found hosting child porn and rape videos is like criticism of women's rights.

Jeezuz, trying to link themselves to an identity politics cause.. :rolleyes:

Stateofyou

Gruffalux wrote: »

A comparison. I often hear it said that if you smoke weed, take drugs (which I don't) you are complicit in a savage industry that causes death and poverty and violence etc. But it is not said much that if you get your sexual release watching content on a website that hosted up to 2 days ago a huge amount of rape videos and abuse of underage and unconscious or even kidnapped people, you are not at all complicit. I wonder why Pornhub has gotten such a free pass for so many years?

I've never heard it said about weed. Especially seeing how it's a plant easily grown by anyone for themselves for one, and for two some countries around the world have legalised it so it's manufacturing and use is regulated. So to say you're complicit in a savage industry because you smoke weed is fairly laughable...

Porn is a stain on society especially young men and women. I said what I said.

Gruffalux

Stateofyou wrote: »

I've never heard it said about weed. Especially seeing how it's a plant easily grown by anyone for themselves for one, and for two some countries around the world have legalised it so it's manufacturing and use is regulated. So to say you're complicit in a savage industry because you smoke weed is fairly laughable...

Porn is a stain on society especially young men and women. I said what I said.

Well you know what I mean. A little exaggeration is a dramatic fault of mine. And I have actually met people who sincerely think weed users are the dregs of the earth and complicit in violent crime.

GarIT

Kraftwerk wrote: »

“It is clear that Pornhub is being targeted not because of our policies and how we compare to our peers, but because we are an adult content platform,” the service writes. “These are the same forces that have spent 50 years demonizing Playboy, the National Endowment for the Arts, sex education, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, and even the American Library Association. Today, it happens to be Pornhub.”

Imagine actually thinking that payment systems refusing to process payments from porn sites found hosting child porn and rape videos is like criticism of women's rights.

The same group that kicked all of this off with the article have previously run campaigns to ban all porn, and ban LGBT marriage. In their last article the stories they told of victims were found to be fake.

PornHub are bad but when others are worse and nothing is done it starts to look like they are being targeted.

PornHub now requires ID verification to upload content and removed all content where they don't have the ID of the uploader. If anything they are now the most ethical porn site. Yet they, and a social network for the kink community, FetLife, are the only sites where payment can't be processed.

JeffKenna

It's the camgirls I always got a bad feeling from. Granted it's a great way for some women to make money and I'm sure they do it independently but I always felt there was something more sinister going on with the large number of girls, from say, country's like Romania.

Stone Deaf 4evr

gonna be a lot of stepbrothers short of cash this christmas.

dudeeile

Effects

Stateofyou wrote: »

I've never heard it said about weed. Especially seeing how it's a plant easily grown by anyone for themselves for one, and for two some countries around the world have legalised it so it's manufacturing and use is regulated. So to say you're complicit in a savage industry because you smoke weed is fairly laughable..

Not everyone grows their own weed. It's laughable to think they will.

Wibbs

Tork wrote: »

I didn't know there were underage and rape videos on there but I'm sure an awful lot of the content has been added without the consent of all the participants.

It's their business model like any of those sites. They uploaded pro and amateur content knowing the producers didn't have the cash or willingness to pursue them in courts. Courts which would likely not smile too kindly on the genre itself. They're only getting roasted now because of the videos that are/may be underage and rape content. I seem to recall reading recently that one woman featured on that site was underage and filmed against her will?

I'd not be surprised to learn that a porn producer or two who weren't making anything from their stolen content leaked the underage/rape angle to rat them out and hit them in their revenue stream.

Thing is with more and more ways to make payments online and things like cryptocurrency sites like these won't be going away any time soon. Set up in a country with few or no regulations and get payment through the above means and the tills keep ringing. And that market is enormous. Something like 10% of all web traffic is related to porn. That's a lot of potential money to be made.

Gruffalux wrote: »

Jeezuz, trying to link themselves to an identity politics cause.. :rolleyes:

They're just following the current trend to link to and focus everything through the identity politics lens, for good, ill, or cynically. It gets the most attention for your cause de jour for good, ill, or cynically. For my money the whole identity politic is a canker on our age and ironically leads to more divisive politics and philosophies.

Stateofyou

Effects wrote: »

Not everyone grows their own weed. It's laughable to think they will.

It's laughable if you think that's what I said.

silverharp

imagine being the guy that had to review them all to see if they could stay or have to go

Wibbs

Stateofyou wrote: »

It's laughable if you think that's what I said.

We're not living in parts of America or Canada. Ireland hasn't legalised weed. It's not regulated. It's produced and supplied in the majority of cases in this country by criminal organisations who also supply drugs that people see as being complicit in supporting a "savage industry". Therefore in Ireland Gruffalux's point still stands.

Wibbs

silverharp wrote: »

imagine being the guy that had to review them all to see if they could stay or have to go

It was done so quickly I suspect they just nuked all non verified content from their database.

Gruffalux

Wibbs wrote: »

It was done so quickly I suspect they just nuked all non verified content from their database.

That's what they did. All unverified content gone. They should have been doing it for the last 15 years

Wibbs

And the unverified content will be uploaded elsewhere until another site gets the attention. I can't see this going away any time soon.

Dave0301

Gruffalux wrote: »

That's what they did. All unverified content gone. They should have been doing it for the last 15 years

Agree with this. In this day and age when sexual content is so casually made, it should not be allowed to be hosted online without some sort of verification.

seamus

silverharp wrote: »

imagine being the guy that had to review them all to see if they could stay or have to go

I think they basically just purged all unverified uploaders.

This is one of those issues that is layered with loads of different issues.

It's good that Pornhub has been forced to clean up its submissions policies.

It's bad that two payment processors have the power to act as pseudo legislators in this regard. This should have been done because the law required it.

It's bad that Pornhub has been the focus of this, but Facebook and other social media are being ignored despite being far worse proliferators of child and abuse porn.

Gruffalux

seamus wrote: »

I think they basically just purged all unverified uploaders.

This is one of those issues that is layered with loads of different issues.

It's good that Pornhub has been forced to clean up its submissions policies.

It's bad that two payment processors have the power to act as pseudo legislators in this regard. This should have been done because the law required it.

It's bad that Pornhub has been the focus of this, but Facebook and other social media are being ignored despite being far worse proliferators of child and abuse porn.

I agree with the first bits. Generally.
The last paragraph - I have not heard Facebook and other social media are FAR worse proliferators of child porn, that is terrible. It has to be stopped.
But Pornhub was knowingly monetising it. Its unbelievable what people will watch. One hears of village shops in India selling gang rape videos from under the counter. To me Pornhub has been doing the same from a glossier- looking village shop.

humberklog

Gruffalux wrote: »

Heh. No. I'm a lady and rape sex is not my thing.

Plenty of ladies enjoy rape sex videos.


I always thought Pornhub was a bit vanilla, as a poster above says it looks like a purge on unverified posters.

seamus

Gruffalux wrote: »

I agree with the first bits. Generally.
The last paragraph - I have not heard Facebook and other social media are FAR worse proliferators of child porn, that is terrible. It has to be stopped.

I say "Facebook", but including Facebook assets like WhatsApp and Instagram.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mnunez/2019/11/13/facebook-instagram-child-porn-removal-mark-zuckerberg-ook-and-instagram-was-wider-than-believed/

The "dodgy counter porn" analogy is apt, but it's only tip of the iceberg. Public platforms like Pornhub aren't used for sharing the more violent and explicit stuff; only the exploitative stuff that can be passed off as legit at first glance.

I accept Pornhub's argument that they get excessive focus from pearl-clutchers because of the nature of their business.
But that doesn't mean they shouldn't have to clean up their act too. We don't ignore burglaries just because there are murders happening too.

CtevenSrowder

humberklog wrote: »

Plenty of ladies enjoy rape sex videos.


I always thought Pornhub was a bit vanilla, as a poster above says it looks like a purge on unverified posters.

The problem was of legitimate rape videos, not consenting BDSM.

RobbieTheRobber

Gruffalux wrote: »

A comparison. I often hear it said that if you smoke weed, take drugs (which I don't) you are complicit in a savage industry that causes death and poverty and violence etc. But it is not said much that if you get your sexual release watching content on a website that hosted up to 2 days ago a huge amount of rape videos and abuse of underage and unconscious or even kidnapped people, you are not at all complicit. I wonder why Pornhub has gotten such a free pass for so many years?

Drugs and porn and Oil, chocolate, coffee, shiny diamonds, the raw materials that make up your new shiny phone and etc etc.
A lot of industries built on the pain and suffering of other people.
But yeah people who take drugs and watch porn those are the real bad guys in the world lets lock all them up first.

Gruffalux

seamus wrote: »

I say "Facebook", but including Facebook assets like WhatsApp and Instagram.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mnunez/2019/11/13/facebook-instagram-child-porn-removal-mark-zuckerberg-ook-and-instagram-was-wider-than-believed/

The "dodgy counter porn" analogy is apt, but it's only tip of the iceberg. Public platforms like Pornhub aren't used for sharing the more violent and explicit stuff; only the exploitative stuff that can be passed off as legit at first glance.

I accept Pornhub's argument that they get excessive focus from pearl-clutchers because of the nature of their business.
But that doesn't mean they shouldn't have to clean up their act too. We don't ignore burglaries just because there are murders happening too.

Agree generally but you seem to be trying to walk a line where you do not want to come across as prohibitive - and I can actually understand that. Porn will always exist. And maybe even always HAS to exist. That is a big topic
But rape videos of anyone and especially minors are not the burglary equivalent in the murder to burglary hierarchy. They are much worse than burglary. In my opinion.

Stateofyou

Wibbs wrote: »

We're not living in parts of America or Canada. Ireland hasn't legalised weed. It's not regulated. It's produced and supplied in the majority of cases in this country by criminal organisations who also supply drugs that people see as being complicit in supporting a "savage industry". Therefore in Ireland Gruffalux's point still stands.

I didn't know we're not living in parts of American or Canada Thanks Wibbs :pac:
That's literally why I mentioned that in parts of the world... where is the reading comprehension gone today :-s

Also I think you will find that many people grow their own here actually. And some others who have an "operation" are only referred to as "criminal organisations" because it's not legalised here but they're not causing anyone any harm in reality because that's all their doing.
Have you got some link that shows the majority of cannabis farms here are also participating in the "savage industry" of wider drugs?

seamus

Gruffalux wrote: »

But rape videos of anyone and especially minors are not the burglary equivalent in the murder to burglary hierarchy. They are much worse than burglary. In my opinion.

This is not a conversation people like having, but even rape exists on a spectrum of "badness". Some forms of rape do more long-term damage to the victim and tell us that the perpetrator is more dangerous, than other types of rape.

The danger here is in painting porn sites as the bad guy and patting ourselves on the back, when there are much much darker and more extreme platforms going effectively unchecked.

Wibbs

Stateofyou wrote: »

I didn't know we're not living in parts of American or Canada Thanks Wibbs :pac:
That's literally why I mentioned that in parts of the world... where is the reading comprehension gone today :-s

Indeed. Writing comprehension may be in the mix too.

Stateofyou wrote: »

I've never heard it said about weed. Especially seeing how it's a plant easily grown by anyone for themselves for one, and for two some countries around the world have legalised it so it's manufacturing and use is regulated. So to say you're complicit in a savage industry because you smoke weed is fairly laughable...

In Ireland where we are if you smoke weed you are far more likely to be supporting the criminal organisations so are "complicit", if that's how people view that.

RobbieTheRobber wrote: »

Drugs and porn and Oil, chocolate, coffee, shiny diamonds, the raw materials that make up your new shiny phone and etc etc.
A lot of industries built on the pain and suffering of other people.
But yeah people who take drugs and watch porn those are the real bad guys in the world lets lock all them up first.

There's an argument there alright. Cotton another well dodgy industry in both labour and environmental terms. Human nature being what it is the squeaky wheel gets the grease and the wheel seen more as immoral or wrong gets it even more. Kids in wherever making your phone or tee shirts buggering up the environment not nearly so much.

Porn is right in the crosshairs for this. An odd mix of modern feminism which can have all sorts of confusing(as usual) attitudes to it, either vile patriarchal exploitation by the "male gaze", or that other fave "empowering" depending on the viewer and producer and the other angle of a pre sexual revolution prissiness towards sex.

Personally I see porn as having many many negatives depending on the subculture within it. There's a pretty clear case for exploitation of performers in "pro" and "semi pro" stuff. Not just the women either, who with few exceptions are a new thing for an instant and a fresh arse is wheeled in in due course. I read last year I think of some pretty big US based outfit that were videoing women and telling them it was for overseas "private" consumption(you'd want to be pretty dumb to believe that, but if you're broke...), even pressuring them when they arrived for what they thought wasn't a hardcore setup. It's not exactly the healthiest mentally and emotionally for many male actors either. People who get their rocks off doing the jiggy for others with full consent involved I've no real issue with. On that side of the camera anyway. On the other hand the consumers with an arm like popeye...

It'll almost certainly always be with us in some form or another mind you. Sexual imagery is in humanity going back to the caves. We were getting our jollies through imagery forever, it's just more concentrated and ubiquitous now. Though like all changes we'll adapt and of course some won't.

Wibbs

seamus wrote: »

This is not a conversation people like having, but even rape exists on a spectrum of "badness". Some forms of rape do more long-term damage to the victim and tell us that the perpetrator is more dangerous, than other types of rape.

The danger here is in painting porn sites as the bad guy and patting ourselves on the back, when there are much much darker and more extreme platforms going effectively unchecked.

+1000. It does smell of "low hanging fruit" in many ways and being seen to be doing the right thing and cleaning up an industry. Goes over well in the cheap seats. As RobbieTheRobber noted earlier there are plenty of arguments around a "lot of industries built on the pain and suffering of other people", but we largely ignore them, because that raises harder questions to answer. If this hadn't gone public and raised eyebrows you can be sure the credit card companies that have supported pornhub for years and made it into a multimillion quid concern would still be supporting them. I'm quite sure they're still supporting the other such porn portals.

How does someone make 100s of millions on a free website?

KiKi III

OnlyFans is a much more ethical way to watch porn. Far more likely to be watching consensual adults, and the creators get paid directly.

eddiervp20

Stateofyou wrote: »

I didn't know we're not living in parts of American or Canada Thanks Wibbs :pac:
That's literally why I mentioned that in parts of the world... where is the reading comprehension gone today :-s

Also I think you will find that many people grow their own here actually. And some others who have an "operation" are only referred to as "criminal organisations" because it's not legalised here but they're not causing anyone any harm in reality because that's all their doing.
Have you got some link that shows the majority of cannabis farms here are also participating in the "savage industry" of wider drugs?

Weed smoker?

seamus

Deleted User wrote: »

How does someone make 100s of millions on a free website?

Ask Google

The answer is ads. Advertisers pay pornhub to run ads on the platform.

I think content creators also get a cut (like how youtube works), but they can also drive people to their own sites to get access to private content.

biggebruv

As always with these things when one falls another rises

I’d largely bet the amateur content is what people mostly looked at if that’s all gone people will just go elsewhere

But if that sort of stuff is rampant on pornhub then it was the right call however it will just pop up somewhere else

Dravokivich

Deleted User wrote: »

How does someone make 100s of millions on a free website?

They have partnerships with content providers, that sell videos and subscriptions.

KiKi III wrote: »

OnlyFans is a much more ethical way to watch porn. Far more likely to be watching consensual adults, and the creators get paid directly.

Not really. I don't think it's even originally meant to be a porn platform. It's just another Patreon type of thing, that became a Pay Per View Instagram.

silverharp

silverharp wrote: »

imagine being the guy that had to review them all to see if they could stay or have to go

I used to work with the person who had that job.

About every twenty minutes she'd erupt into a fit of giggles.

GarIT

KiKi III wrote: »

OnlyFans is a much more ethical way to watch porn. Far more likely to be watching consensual adults, and the creators get paid directly.

They usually want money. You can subscribe and then the person stops producing content. You don't get as good a selection of content.

Gruffalux

seamus wrote: »

This is not a conversation people like having, but even rape exists on a spectrum of "badness". Some forms of rape do more long-term damage to the victim and tell us that the perpetrator is more dangerous, than other types of rape.

The danger here is in painting porn sites as the bad guy and patting ourselves on the back, when there are much much darker and more extreme platforms going effectively unchecked.

There are darker platforms that go unchecked. True.
But Pornhub is huge. A mega platform with the same kind of cultural pervasiveness and, really, acceptability, as any of the big global corporations now. And it was hosting a lot of rape videos. This is a fact.

I think that sexual assault is along a scale and was early out of the traps to signal my personal frustration with a MeToo movement which effectively seemed to make some kind of equivalence between a slap on the arse and a brutal rape.. And I am not actually onboard with the idea of a pervasive rape culture existing. And so on.
But the essence of rape is unwanted penetration and I am not sure I can understand what you mean by a scale in this case. It is all bad, from plain ordinary bad to incomprehensibly bad.
Which kind of actual rape videos on Pornhub or elsewhere would you think fit into a not so bad on the scale type? Because a scale suggests there are rape videos that are not so bad. Maybe I am misunderstanding.

GarIT

[Deleted User] wrote: »

How does someone make 100s of millions on a free website?

Exact same was as RTE or Facebook. Ads and selling data.

km991148

Gruffalux wrote: »

Well you know what I mean. A little exaggeration is a dramatic fault of mine. And I have actually met people who sincerely think weed users are the dregs of the earth and complicit in violent crime.

Of course weed is also involved in violent crime.
People just don't want to hear that.

Sir Oxman

Gruffalux wrote: »

I agree with the first bits. Generally.
The last paragraph - I have not heard Facebook and other social media are FAR worse proliferators of child porn, that is terrible. It has to be stopped.
But Pornhub was knowingly monetising it. Its unbelievable what people will watch. One hears of village shops in India selling gang rape videos from under the counter. To me Pornhub has been doing the same from a glossier- looking village shop.

Twitter is one of the biggest sources of porn on t'internet.
And MAPs.

Gruffalux

Must be some subscription aspect though if credit card companies withdrawing services were the cause of the clean up.

GarIT

Gruffalux wrote: »

Must be some subscription aspect though if credit card companies withdrawing services were the cause of the clean up.

Nah, substriptions are less than 1% of turnover for them.

Dravokivich

Sir Oxman wrote: »

Twitter is one of the biggest sources of porn on t'internet.
And MAPs.

It's going to be worse now with Periscope transitioning to Twitter over the next 4 months.

biggebruv

Sir Oxman wrote: »

Twitter is one of the biggest sources of porn on t'internet.
And MAPs.

This is true and very f—-ed up I looked at a trending topic once - Phoenix park

Started off nice some nature , animals ,birds etc then on my 13 inch tablet a picture of a women bending over her car with her arse out asking to be banged right here and now SHOCKING LOL