I would go even farther to worry that this might begin to push the Overton window towards demonizing any content posted online that isn't "verified" by a real identity. MindGeek (the company behind PornHub) was also backing the UK's law requiring an ID to watch porn online. If users get comfortable with the idea of having even their porn tied to a real ID, wouldn't they become comfortable with less "private" content also tied to their legal identity?
I don't want to read this headline from the future: "Pornhub requires an ID, should Reddit, Twitter, and 4chan do the same?" And I also don't want to read the future headline: "Pornhub's ID database hacked, thousands of models names and addresses exposed"
Anonymity is important (imo) and it would be a shame to see people use porn as the excuse to curtail it. Surely it's possible to remove illegal content without stripping away privacy and anonymity.
Everything on that list depends on a relatively high volume of relatively low value banking transactions.
What's your evidence for this claim? I don't know if it's true but it certainly isn't what I'd expect.
> Pornhub's announcement also cites a report by third-party Internet Watch Foundation, which found 118 instances of child sexual abuse material on Pornhub in the last three years, and notes that in the same period, Facebook's own transparency report found 84 million instances of child sexual abuse material on the social media platform.
There was also such an issue with it cropping up on Tumblr and not being removed in short enough order that Tumblr was briefly removed from the iOS app store.[1]
A large bulk of users likely never sign up for PH, making it harder to vet individuals to make sure they wont report the content. People show up with pretty much one thing in mind when going to PH and it's not really to interact with communities. Facebook has so much reach and such a large userbase that it's harder to moderate, and it's used for exactly what these groups want to do.
If we were only talking about close to 18 yo CSAM, sure that I could believe might be something that is more common on PH. But when looking at the entirety of CSAM, I just find it hard to believe that people would risk uploading a video that clearly has a child in it to a service that actively moderates video content primarily to a community that, en masse, doesn't like the content.
There could be some tabulation issues, but I find it hard to believe it's so poorly counted that it would make up a meaningful difference between the two numbers provided.
- Most popular social media websites allow adult content in some forms.
- It is no easier to tell illicit content from legal content on one site versus another.
- There is likely not just far more content, but far more adult content on Twitter and Facebook than dedicated porn websites.
- Sites like Twitter and Facebook better facilitate private conversation (presumably.)
I don’t think you can make money on Pornhub without verification, so there’s probably not a money incentive to intentionally post illicit content. In fact I’m not entirely sure why you would at all, but my best guess is in hopes of trading with others. In that case, social media is actually perfect: draw people in with carefully constructed fronts, do dealings in private groups and try to fly as much under the radar as possible.
It’s hard to say and probably silly to speculate but I just don’t see the point of using a pornography website for this.
Still, Facebook and Twitter just have way more content and users than porn websites, and it’s going to be easier to fly under the radar. Twitter accounts with fewer than 500 followers are basically invisible.
Of course, banning pornography really does roughly solve this problem, but it’s a pretty nuclear solution... (I would prefer a world where we’re less weird about erotic content, not more. I get why it’s complicated, but I still think we can do better.)
> makes me think
> Intuitively, I'd expect
Why do you think all these things?
I’m not saying there is no problem whatsoever and nothing should be done. However, Pornhub has come under increasing scrutiny despite an underwhelming amount of evidence that it has a serious endemic problem. Such illegal material could easily end up on any website if it is mistaken to be legal, which unfortunately does happen; it’s not very easy to tell if someone is biologically 18, you are likely underestimating how much the human body can vary from person to person if you think that it’s easy. But, while it’s not a good thing, the bigger picture is that Pornhub is largely not being used to intentionally distribute illegal material, whereas social media and chat programs actually are. Sometimes surprisingly close to out in the open.
Something feels disconcerting here. It’s not that I care personally about this particular action; in truth I have almost only ever seen meme videos on Pornhub. But it feels like it could be a precursor to another push to censor pornography and the internet. Somehow, when eroticism is involved, people either cheer on or simply are ambivalent about censorship. I think this is irrational. The edges of free speech are the only parts that really matter that much. This action here doesn’t really hinder anyone’s expression directly, but it certainly seems like it will have chilling effects that justify future actions that will.
Of course I hope this is mostly nothing and it ends up being purely positive. However, I at least implore some thought here as this didn’t just occur in a vacuum.