The New York Times recently exposed the human trafficking cost of Pornhub, a Montreal-based company that serves pornographic videos to millions of people across the world. The site gave an opportunity to traffickers to make money from videos that host non-consensual sexual activity.
The author of the New York Times article, Nicholas Kristof, writes (WARNING GRAPHIC): “Its site is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags.” The scale at which this occurs is equally as shocking as what occurs; Pornhub ranks (according to one site) as the tenth most popular website in the world.
The problem seems to be that users could upload any video that they wanted to Pornhub. The most obvious resolutions would be to make pornography itself illegal or create specific laws for Pornhub. Both are unlikely to happen anytime soon, and North American society generally accepts and even approves of pornography.
But then something happened.
Pornhub stopped allowing unverified uses from uploading content and removed nearly 75% of its videos.
What led to this sudden change? Is Pornhub over? Probably not. Yet the porn giant has been wounded. Here is a rundown of what happened.
Timeline
First, the aforementioned New York Times article made the world aware of the human cost of Pornhub. This occurred on December 4th.
Second, the day after the article, Pornhub decided to implement a verification system so that only verified users could upload content.
Third, on December 6th, it was reported that Mastercard and Visa were investigating Pornhub. Even though this was reported after the verification change, it seems likely that Pornhub wanted to prevent any blockage in their payments since last year Paypal stopped working with Pornhub.
Fourth, on December 10th in what seems like a planned course of action, both Visa and Mastercard ceased allowing their cards to be used on Pornhub’s site.
Fifth, on December 14th Vice reported that Pornhubs was removing its unverified content. Apparently, that means about 75% of its content.
Can it stand up? What now?
Pornhub has fallen. Can it stand up again? Sadly, the answer will almost certainly be yes for one simple reason: the demand has not declined, only the supply has.
The change has also reduced the capacity for sex workers to make money off of Pornhub.* While that may force sex workers into other industries, it could also force such workers to participate in more dangerous activities. I am not sure of which direction things will turn out, which provides the church an opportunity to support those who feel like they have no other path forward.
The pornography industry will not disappear anytime soon. Pornhub may even recover fully (or mostly) since about 25% of its content still exists, and presumably many users will verify their accounts. The lack of Paypal, Visa, and Mastercard on the site however will have a lasting impact. People follow the money; without it, they go elsewhere.
It is then a pyrrhic victory, or perhaps it is better to say an incremental one. Incremental goods are still good. We can appreciate that public support has forced the largest online purveyor of pornography to clamp down on its practices.
This could very well lead to the reduction of trafficking. And once we personalize it, we should realize that this means many young girls, in particular, will avoid an entrance into a life of trauma and harm. That is good by any standard.
*Rolling Stone explains why these changes will reduce income for sex workers, but I did not want to link to it in the article above because the header for the article is too suggestive.
