Adult Video Site Pornhub Forced To Wipe Out 9 million Unverified Videos

Pornhub is in hot water for allegedly featuring children and victims of sex-trafficking in millions of videos. Nicholas Kristof, a journalist from The New York Times reported this finding. However, the website sprang into action only after Visa and MasterCard severed their financial relations with Pornhub.

“We are aware of the allegations, and we are actively engaging with the relevant financial institutions to investigate, in addition to engaging directly with the site’s parent company, MindGeek,” Visa said on Sunday.

Due to this, Pornhub was compelled to delete almost nine million videos. The site wiped out many illegal videos in addition to the ones from unverified sources. The number of videos plummeted down to four million against the actual 13 million. Now the website will make sure to upload videos from verified users.

Also Read: Making Premium Content Free on Porn Sites Encourages Child Porn?

Last week, Visa and MasterCard decided to carry out an investigation in response to Kristof's report. However, Pornhub has denied Kristof's allegations by calling them "flagrantly untrue." Also, this isn't the first time where Pornhub has faced such problems. PayPal, an online payment app withdrew its payment services on the platform. Cards from American Express Co. are no longer functional on Pornhub.

Mastercard issued a statement saying that the investigation “confirmed violations of our standards prohibiting unlawful content on their site,” whereas Visa said, “We are instructing the financial institutions who serve MindGeek to suspend processing of payments through the Visa network,” NYT reported.

Moreover, the company had to face criminal charges for endorsing the rape of Rosa Kalemba, a minor girl. Activists from a US-based group called Exodus Cry raised a petition against the company. It accused Pornhub of making profits by condoning sexual abuse against children. The world's biggest porn website has been facing numerous allegations over the past year. However, the company claims that it is being victimised for publishing 'adult content.'

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Anoushka Das is an intern with SheThePeople.TV.