Ahem… what is going on with Pornhub?
Canada's inaction on illegal, disturbing content on the platform has been called out in a big way. Here's what you need to know.
Hey there, and welcome to the tenth (!!) issue of The Supplement, a newsletter that fills in the gaps of your other news intake. This is Sam, one-third of the Supplement team!
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Content warning: This issue of The Supplement contains descriptions of sexual assault.
This week, we’re tackling this question: Ahem… what is going on with Pornhub?
TL;DR: A New York Times column that spotlighted widespread accounts of abuse, child pornography and revenge pornography on Pornhub and questioned Canada’s inaction towards its Montreal-based parent company has garnered a lot of attention over the past few weeks. The Canadian government has promised to tackle the issue in early 2021 — but lawmakers have actually known about the issue for months.
Here’s our answer:
A recent New York Times column — “The Children of Pornhub: Why does Canada allow this company to profit off videos of exploitation and assault?” — contained explosive conclusions and set off an important chain of events.
As detailed in the NYT piece, Pornhub attracts 3.5 billion visits a month — more than Netflix or Amazon. This means a huge audience for a site that carries many videos taken without the consent of their subjects, including assault, coerced footage and revenge pornography. Columnist Nicholas Kristof spotlighted incredibly disturbing examples of child pornography as well. One woman said of her experience, “Pornhub became my trafficker.”
“The issue is not pornography but rape. … It should be possible to be sex positive and Pornhub negative,” Kristof writes.
Here’s the crucial Canadian connection: Pornhub’s parent company, MindGeek, is based in Montreal.
The article blew up online. On December 10, MasterCard and Visa said that they would no longer allow their cards to be used to complete payments on Pornhub. MasterCard said its independent investigation found illegal material on the site, while Visa’s investigation is ongoing.
But there’s a catch to the new regulations: eight adult performers told NBC News that preventing patrons from using Visa or MasterCard hurts them financially much more than it hurts Pornhub. Sex workers have already been struggling throughout the pandemic, during which they have been criminalized and left without government support.
Then, earlier this week, Pornhub removed all uploaded content from unverified users and promised to release their first transparency report next year. They have also banned people from downloading videos, which previously allowed content to proliferate across the Internet even if it was deleted from the site.
On Tuesday, 40 women in California, including three Canadians, launched an $80-million lawsuit against MindGeek that alleges the company continues to profit from nonconsensual videos of them. It also says that MindGeek knew — or at least, should have known — that fraud and coercion were regularly used by one of its commercial partners to get women to appear in videos.
So what’s the Canadian government doing about it?
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault says he is working on a bill to hold online platforms responsible for eliminating illegal content, including child pornography. The legislation would charge sites like Pornhub fees in the millions of dollars for posting illegal pornographic content. Watch for that in early 2021.
But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was alerted to issues with Pornhub long before the NYT article was published. In March, a group of senators and MPs sent him a letter outlining their concerns about videos being posted to the site. They wrote to federal Justice Minister David Lametti in November about the same thing. According to the Toronto Star, neither responded.
And regulating Pornhub alone will not be enough, advocates insist. The problem extends beyond pornography sites and onto massive social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and more.
Over two million people have signed a petition demanding Pornhub be shut down.
Here’s someone to follow:
Check out Nadine Yousif, the Toronto Star’s mental health reporter. For obvious reasons, she’s had her hands full since the pandemic began, covering the caregivers under immense stress, COVID-19’s link to a number of mental health disorders and StatsCan’s first-ever data on homicides with Black victims. And those are just some bylines from the last month.
Here’s a story to check out:
Supplement your news this week with this story on wooden grain elevators by the Saskatoon Star Pheonix’s Nick Pearce. The piece starts with a generational relic being set on fire by a reluctant but resilient man, and zooms back and forth in history from there. Bonus points for its stunning visuals.
