Instagram has disabled Pornhub’s account on the platform for unknown reasons.
The NSFW Instagram covers 6,200 posts and has 13.1 million followers. The ban on it is not clear if it’s permanent or not.
This connection may not be in line with Instagram’s policy to keep its profile clean of sexual content.
According to a Pornhub spokesperson, the company’s account was temporarily disabled. This is due, in part, to instagram’s over-caution when it comes to censoring the adult industry. They look forward to their account being reactivated.
The Instagram account for Pornhub was removed in June 2021, and reinstated less than a day after. The latest ban has now been extended for three days with no explanation from Instagram.
When Pornhub found out their Instagram account was shut down, they speculated that it had something to do with anti-porn crusaders. Former director of abolition at Exodus Cry, Laila Michelwait, claimed responsibility for the account’s removal and has accused Pornhub of violating community guidelines. However, Instagram clarified the removal had nothing to do with the account’s content and instead cited accounts unrelated to Pornhub.
Pornhub, which was blocked from the social media platform earlier this week, has insisted it had nothing to do with the apparent blocking of Pornhub’s Instagram account.
He said that the goal of Traffickinghub is to hold MindGeek accountable for its content.
According to the CEO, Traffickinghub is not meant for those in the legal porn industry, but exclusively for shutting down Pornhub for exploiting victims.
Pornhub’s account was disabled by Instagram for unknown reasons.
Pornhub has recently been banned from certain credit card providers. A judge found that because of their handling of transactions for the site, they could be seen as complicit in monetizing child porn. The plaintiff accuses video producers and uploaders of actively filming content in violation of her age, and uploading it to Pornpoor where she was underage at the time.
In 2020, credit card companies cut ties with Pornhub’s parent company. As a result of this, they created one of the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history. Initially, the policies did not seem to have an effect on abuse or trafficking until later that year when they removed millions of videos.
The CEO and COO suddenly left this summer, and MindGeek’s organization has no plan for moving forward.
Sex workers have been faced with a new challenge, as CSAM is becoming more regulated. Prior to Mastercard changing their policies, at one point, OnlyFans was faced with taking down NSFW content, which had the potential to violate sex worker rights. After they heard backlash from the community, they quickly reversed this decision and addressed their banking providers in hopes of finding a different solution.
OnlyFans, in contrast to Pornhub, operates a pay-to-view system, where users pay to watch the creators’ porn. OnlyFans has set up functionality for content not to be viewed by underage persons, provided that the creator verifies themselves as an adult through their identity verification services.
When online platforms threaten to ban sexual services, they can often mean the loss of their livelihood. This can also force sex workers into unsafe, offline working conditions.
Legislation like the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) can have an adverse affect on sex workers, as it may make their work increasingly difficult and less stable. For example, when sex workers lose access to online platforms and become homeless, organizations are reported as having seen a stark rise in the number of cases for those same sex workers.
