Pornhub will only allow uploads from verified users, and content partners, and has disabled the ability the ability to download content from the platform — except for paid downloads by verified users —, the company announced in a blog post. In addition, the platform will also strengthen its content moderation practices. These changes follow a scathing New York Times report, which documented how Pornhub is replete with child sexual abuse material, and how people whose intimate clips end up on the platform face trauma for years to come. The report pointed out that because users can download videos from Pornhub, that content never really vanishes from the Pornhub, even if the platform takes it down, as someone else could just re-upload it. The restriction on downloads is significant in that context. “In tandem with our fingerprinting technology, this will mitigate the ability for content already removed from the platform to be able to return,” Pornhub said. Pornhub is among the most popular porn sites globally, with over 3.5 billion visits a month, per the NYT report. Before these changes, Pornhub worked similar to YouTube, where any user could upload a video, and if a video is flagged to violate the platform’s content moderation policies, then it gets taken down. However, that is not always enough, as the NYT report vividly documents, which is why restricting uploads to only verified users can be crucial in limiting CSAM. In 2021, the platform will implement a verification process so that any user can upload…
