Pornhub Makes Sweeping Changes, but VISA, MC Jump Ship

The past week has brought a rapid-fire series of unprecedented events in the history of adult streaming platform Pornhub.

On Tuesday, the adult-content behemoth—one of the most-trafficked websites in the world—announced sweeping policy changes to uploads, downloads, verification requirements, and moderation of content. The move came after months of unrest over Pornhub’s operations—ranging from a petition demanding the site be shut down that garnered over 2 million signatures to legislators demanding they company be investigated—culminated last Friday in a New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof. He alleged that Pornhub was “infested with rape videos,” and the article went viral, despite much side-eyeing from those inside the adult industry, who noted that Kristof has worked publicly with anti-sex work Christian groups in the past. 

But the article clearly had an effect, regardless. This Monday, the world’s two biggest credit card companies—Visa and Mastercard—both announced that they would investigate their ties to Pornhub’s parent company, MindGeek, one of the largest producers and distributors of adult entertainment in the world.

The next day, Pornhub issued a statement announcing huge shifts in its policies. “We have always been committed to eliminating illegal content, including non-consensual material and child sexual abuse material,” the statement said. “Going forward, we will only allow properly identified users to upload content. We have banned downloads. We have made some key expansions to our moderation process, and we recently launched a Trusted Flagger Program with dozens of non-profit organizations.”

The statement went on to detail that, effective immediately, it would severely restrict uploading capabilities to “only content partners and people within the Model Program.” In the new year, they said they planned to implement a verification program to limit those able to upload new content. 

Further, Pornhub “removed the ability for users to download content from Pornhub, with the exception of paid downloads within the verified Model Program.” 

The company also announced an extensive plan to expand its moderation efforts, including: the introduction of a “Red Team” that “will be dedicated solely to self-auditing the platform for potentially illegal material”; the identification and banning of more dangerous keywords; the monitoring of search term trends; and a “Trusted Flagger Program” that will partner with 40 international non-profit internet and child safety organizations, each of which can flag and immediately remove content. They also promised a Transparency Report in 2021.

All these moves notwithstanding, both Mastercard and Visa announced that they were no longer processing payments on Pornhub. 

In a statement to Bloomberg on Thursday, Mastercard announced, “Our investigation over the past several days has confirmed violations of our standards prohibiting unlawful content on their site.” As a result, they said, “We instructed the financial institutions that connect the site to our network to terminate acceptance.”

Meanwhile, Visa has suspended payments on the site, tweeting, “Given the allegations of illegal activity, Visa is suspending Pornhub’s acceptance privileges pending the completion of our ongoing investigation.”

These moves from the credit card companies constitute a staggering blow to one of the biggest websites in the world, which sees tens of millions of visitors every day. It is yet to be established what changes these decisions will end up making upon the greater landscape of adult entertainment online. But it seems unavoidable that the thousands of models and production companies who have come to rely on Pornhub as a major source of revenue will feel its effects.

“This news is crushing for the hundreds of thousands of models who rely on our platform for their livelihoods,” a Pornhub spokesperson said in a statement to Vice. “These actions are exceptionally disappointing, as they come just two days after Pornhub instituted the most far-reaching safeguards in user-generated platform history.”

YNOT was unable to reach Pornhub for comment as of the time of publishing this article, but suffice to say the ramifications of this week’s events will be felt in the adult entertainment industry for quite some time to come.