Pornhub has responded to a petition that calls for the website to be shut them down, claiming that they are inadequate at monitoring their content and thus allow and profit off of criminal videos. The petition was launched on Change.org by a non-profit organization called Exodus Cry that seeks to "combine prayer and practical ministry to see sex trafficking and slavery ended around the world." Exodus Cry has sought out to completely shut down Pornhub due to its inadequacy in moderating the content they share on their platform, allowing for footage of children as well as victims of sex trafficking and rape to be uploaded. The organization cites a recent case in which footage of a 15-year-old who was trafficked and raped was reportedly verified with a blue checkmark and cleared to be uploaded on the site, as evidence that Pornhub's moderation tactics are extremely incompetent.
While the petition is asking for donations to "fight against big porn," Exodus Cry's director of abolition, Laila Mickelwait, has clarified in a statement that these banning efforts do not apply to all porn. “I am talking about shutting a multi-million dollar company down who is profiting off of the rape, sex trafficking and assault of women and children," she stated. "It is not an extreme point of view to think that the largest and most popular porn website in the world should not be allowed to cash in on the trauma, exploitation, and rape of women and children.”
Pornhub has released a statement regarding the petition, in which they explain the measures they are taking to properly assess the content they receive. "Pornhub has a steadfast commitment to eradicating and fighting any and all illegal content on the internet, including non-consensual content and child sexual abuse material," the website stated. "Any suggestion otherwise is categorically and factually inaccurate. While the wider tech community must continue to develop new methods to rid the internet of this horrific content, Pornhub is actively working to put in place state-of-the-art, comprehensive safeguards on its platform to combat this material."
"These actions include a robust system for flagging, reviewing and removing all illegal material, employing an extensive team of human moderators dedicated to manually reviewing all uploads to the site, and using a variety of digital fingerprinting solutions," the statement continues. "These include but are not limited to Microsoft’s PhotoDNA, a technology that aids in finding and removing known images of child exploitation, as well as Vobile, a state-of-the-art fingerprinting software that scans any new uploads for potential matches to unauthorized materials to protect against any banned video being re-uploaded to the platform. We are actively working on expanding our safety measures and adding new features and products to our platform to this end, as they become available. Furthermore, Pornhub will continue to work with law enforcement efforts and child protection non-profits in the goal of eliminating any and all illegal content across the internet."