The most popular porn site, Pornhub has reportedly deleted around 9 million videos unverified videos. This means that any video that wasn't uploaded by official content partners or members of its model program. Nine million videos occupy huge space on the website and this removal means a significant chunk of Pornhub's content will disappear.

Here's Pornhub's official announcement - "As part of our policy to ban unverified uploaders, we have now also suspended all previously uploaded content that was not created by content partners or members of the Model Program. This means every piece of Pornhub content is from verified uploaders, a requirement that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter have yet to institute."

In the meantime, the videos will be put under review for authentication and the verification process will begin next year. This is a radical shift in how Pornhub monitors its content as earlier, anyone could create an account on the site and upload any video they wanted to. They’ve changed their policy after 13 years.

Why is Pornhub suddenly removing videos from their website?

On Monday, the New York Times published a heartbreaking article detailing the lives of child sexual abuse victims whose videos were uploaded on Pornhub. Opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote that the platform supported revenge pornography and explicit non-consensual videos. Soon after, Mastercard and Visa began an investigation on the illegal content on the website.

Pornhub, due to experiencing criticism for its inability to monitor content and giving a platform to child sexual abusers, decided to ban all unverified users from uploading or downloading content on the site. But even after Pornhub deleted the unverified videos, Mastercard and Visa decided to boycott Pornhub by refusing to process payments within the site. Visa went a step further and declared that it would drop all of the Mindgeek network, which includes a number of adult sites, including Redtube, Youporn, XTube, and Brazzers. Now, if a user visits the site and clicks on an unverified video, they will most likely see a notice on the screen saying the video has been flagged for verification, “in accordance with our trust and safety policy.”

What are the changes in Pornhub now?

Before the site purged all content from unverified uploaders, there were 13.5 million videos on Pornhub, as per the number displayed on the site's search bar. But this week, there were around 4.7 million videos remaining. This means there were around 9 million videos worth of unverified content that could have contained sexual abuse or underage people. Vice reported that Pornhub even removed its most-viewed non-verified amateur video which had more than 29 million views.

How will Pornhub make sure a video is verified?

With this content purge, Pornhub wants to tighten its reign on who can and cannot upload on the site. According to the site, verified users are those who have submitted a selfie of themselves holding a piece of paper with their username and pornhub.com handwritten on it. If this is the only criteria, it might not be sufficient as it is very easy to photoshop the handwritten note with a random person holding it.

However, in an interview, Pornhub told Vice that the verification process will be way more thorough in the new year. To add efficacy to the policy, Pornhub says it will create a “Red Team” that’s dedicated to auditing the platform for potentially illegal material.

They are also planning to launch a "Trusted Flagger Program," in which 40 non-profit internet and child safety organizations around the world will have a direct line of access to their moderation team, and any content identified by a Trusted Flagger will be immediately disabled. A verified user can not just upload videos but also join the ModelHub program and monetize them.

What do porn performers think of the new policy?

In the NYT opinion piece, Kristof suggested that payment companies should simply drop Pornhub to make a statement against child sexual exploitation and Mastercard and Visa did exactly that. Porn stars weren't entirely happy with this decision as they felt their source of income would be blocked with this decision.

Sex workers claimed that this is a dangerous, discriminatory decision and they fear that payment processors may target smaller adult platforms next. In a statement published Friday, Sex Workers Outreach Project Behind Bars wrote that the decision will force more sex workers into the margins, calling it a "war" on sex workers.

Their statement read - "We say 'war against sex workers' because the damage they do does not impact the labor as much as it affects the laborers who depend on the Pornhub platform to earn a living," it wrote. "[...] Violence against sex workers includes the societal and institutional violence that has led to the shuttering of the online platforms that give us a measure of safety and allow us the critical resource that is the ability to access banking." According to Vice, the platform's verified Amateur Program and ad revenue made on video uploads, give large profits to independent sex workers on Pornhub.

Will the new policy and ban on unverified videos help stop sexual exploitation?

Pornhub claims that a third-party company, the Internet Watch Foundation, found 118 videos portraying child sexual abuse on Pornhub in the last three years. This seems like a big understatement, especially when compared to Facebook's report on the same which found 84 million cases of child sexual abuse material on their platform.

Pornhub needs to be more transparent and come clean about its content if it is striving for meaningful change. Yes, their decision to stop unverified users from sharing videos on the site could greatly reduce abusive videos on the platform. However, Pornhub's commitment to the cause is questionable as it had continued to host "Girls Do Porn" as a "Pornhub Content Partner" despite the company being sued by 22 women for fraud, emotional distress damages, and misappropriation of their likeness. The porn website only removed Girls Do Porn's official account after the owners of the channel were charged with federal sex trafficking counts.

We can only hope that Pornhub makes a concrete effort this time, keeping in mind both creators and actors taking part in pornography. Pornhub concluded their statement by saying, "In today’s world, all social media platforms share the responsibility to combat illegal material. Solutions must be driven by real facts and real experts. We hope we have demonstrated our dedication to leading by example."