Pornhub removes the majority of its content due to concerns about rape and underage

[CoffeeTeaChocolate]

edition.cnn.com/2020/12/15/business/pornhub-videos-removed/index.html

Has this been posted yet?

I can hardly believe it is true. So relieved!

Just goes to show, it's always money - and the threat of losing it - that makes a difference. The Mastercard and Visa ban has evidently hit them where it hurts.

@BertieBotts Human moderators are also required, this is sure, although I worry about the mental health impacts of this kind of work -- if technology can help, it should be used. Facial recognition may not be so advanced, but I don't think it is as far behind as you say. And if any company has the data to train such models, it would be P. Hub.

Wow - this is good news.

I’ve also had a nasty “oh no” thought and I maybe way off base but what will happen to the women who’ve been trafficked, etc to make this content now that their rape won’t make money from PH?

Will PH (or authorities) do anything, other than remove content, to try and find the women or prosecute the traffickers who uploaded the content?

I don’t think so, because that involves effort and money. And we’re talking about people who have been rejected by society. Once you’ve been rejected pretty much anything is too much effort.

A positive result for the NYT article, but shameful that it took them so long.

It was a really powerful piece of journalism and an example of what can be achieved when journalists are prepared to go against the grain at their publication. I can't imagine many journalists at the NYT would have been as bold as Nicholas Kristof.

I work in a role where I see cutting-edge AI technology all the time, usually in prototype stages where the rollout of the full tech will happen in 3-5 years.

I can say unequivocally: yes, absolutely, facial recognition AI technology can make incredibly accurate estimates of age. It is not even difficult using open-source products and toolkits running on off-the-shelf hardware. Many companies are currently working on much more sophisticated tech than that.

If your local stores wanted to, they could, as of this year, buy a system that would identify your race, sex, age, and even whether you were wearing luxury brands (and which ones they were). They could even identify whether you were a specific VIP based on facial recognition, with a database of thousands of celebrities, and alert the staff as to your name and why you were famous.

These technologies are being rolled out slowly because people are extremely afraid of the privacy implications (with good reason, IMO). But the idea that AI can "barely detect whether a person is in a photo" is not true -- people just think it is because all they have access to is consumer-grade tech that has been thoroughly idiotproofed.

And isn't it depressing that going against the grain nowadays would include an in depth investigation into a major porn provider.

I'm delighted. Some of the online comments mostly from men on the news were disturbing they just don't get it.

I think porn hub’s self described leading by example’ approach is in some respects useful, though clearly they’re a shocking commercial organisation which has hosted really vile & damaging material.

After all, where will this removed material go now? Somewhere else on the internet. The more PH go on about how wonderful they are, and how their porn is ‘ethical’, all happy performers etc, the more likely that many of their customers will stick with them rather than seek out those other sites, out of residual shame. Obviously that’s not saying much, but the sites that do take over this material will presumably be even worse, now.

I think it’s useful in that it can move the dial a bit on what’s acceptable, so it’s not nothing. But the whole industry is built on suffering - the majority of the performers, the moderators - and it itself inflicts suffering- destroying relationships, degrading women, alienating men from themselves- and I despair on how we change that.

Some good news. It's a start!

I think PH is disgusting and that they should have done this much earlier. I also think that they only did it because they felt that they had to for financial reasons.

However, whatever the reason is, I am so relieved that they did this.

It's the same as when they wanted a round of applause for saying that film depicting fake or actual rape wasn't allowed any more.

And they got it.

When did the bar get so low?

Of course they didn't actually do anything to stop it, as we know they actively ignored it and left it even when they were told.

But yay they're so progressive.

I mean my view is if they're so interested in fucking they can go fuck themselves.

If Porn Hub was found to be guilty in court of knowingly hosting images of child sex abuse and of adult women being raped, would credit card companies who provided financial services to them also be liable for participating in a criminal enterprise?

It's a step in the right direction but still only one step. However I'll celebrate that for now.

But even after this “clean up”, charities have said they are concerned that many videos on the site are still promoting fictionalised child abuse acted by adults.
In one series branded “made exclusively for Pornhub”, films show fantasies of parents having sex with their newly fostered teenagers.

www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/dec/16/online-incest-porn-is-normalising-child-abuse-say-charities

Invest porn is v popular.

I've just realised that there aren't any posters saying how porn is great and it's all fine and you're a bunch of prudes and aren't people allowed to wank etc. I wonder where they were.

I realised as I remembered when incest porn was mentioned that people say it's fine as is just a fantasy etc etc and suddenly wondered where they were.

Also repeating myself tonight but you get the drift!

I remember seeing some posts defending PH on other threads. I think even they must have realised how nasty that platform is and what disgusting materials that it hosted.

It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they still hold the same views and silently lament that a big part of the content is gone.

However, I doubt they appreciate the sunlight on this and they may be sensible enough to hide their views.

Really pleased to hear this news

Delighted to hear this news. Thanks to the credit card companies for taking action, to Nicholas Kristof for writing the article and to Exodus Cry for raising the issue and keeping it in the spotlight. Do wish the whole site and industry was shut down. Even one video of abuse slipping through is one too many.

Has this been posted?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9059637/PornHub-owner-MindGeek-sued-80-million-40-women-say-site-profited-GirlsDoPorn.html

Pornhub owner MindGeek is being sued by 40 women who say the site profited from sex trafficking.

(Comment section is full of victim blaming ghouls who are pissed off they can't get off to women being raped anymore.)

Hadn't see that, thank you for sharing

Also repeating myself tonight but you get the drift!

Y,y, 'just fantasy', all those nice men simply fantasising about incest, never acting on it...

Comment section is full of victim blaming ghouls who are pissed off they can't get off to women being raped anymore.

Correcting myself-I shouldn't have added this to my last post, because no doubt they will^ still find that sort of content, because they're depraved shits.

But I really hope this is a turning point. Seems like an impossible one to tackle