Pornhub on Monday removed all videos uploaded by unverified users, causing more than half of the content to be removed from the platform overnight.
The crackdown follows the publication of an op-ed in The New York Times that found videos of children being abused on the platform and Visa and Mastercard subsequently discontinued the service.
Pornhub appears to have deleted more than 10 million videos, according to Motherboard, which first reported the removals. The site is said to have hosted 13.5 million videos on Sunday evening, but less than 3 million on Tuesday morning.
The company announced last week that it would remove unverified content.
“As part of our policy to ban unverified uploaders, we have now also suspended all previously uploaded content that was not created by content partners or members of the modeling program,” Pornhub said in a statement Monday. “This means that every piece of Pornhub content comes from verified uploaders, a requirement that platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter have yet to set.”
Uploads are now only allowed from official content partners or members of the company’s “Model Program”, which require age verification.
Pornhub also noted that many nonprofits credit the company for effectively tackling child sexual abuse material before the Times report.
“In the past three years, Facebook itself has reported 84 million cases of child sexual abuse material. During the same period, the independent, third-party Internet Watch Foundation reported 118 incidents on Pornhub, ”he said. “There are still 118 too many, so we are committed to taking all necessary measures.”
While the decision to end unverified uploads could be helpful in reducing abuse, Pornhub itself has a history of promoting a business sued by women featured in its videos.
The suspension of payment services as a result of the new control of Pornhub could harm sex workers, who depend for their income on the sale of the platform.