Pornhub is making major changes to its service following a New York Times article that highlighted how the site's lax enforcement of its policies has enabled child exploitation.
Among the changes: Pornhub is ending uploads from unverified users and banning the ability of users' to download much of the site's content. The company is also implementing new moderation policies and will release a transparency report in 2021. The changes come a day after Visa and Mastercard pledged to "investigate" their relationship with Pornhub parent company MindGeek.
The new rules will significantly alter key dynamics of the service, which will now impose limits on who is able to upload content to the site and block the ability for most of its content to be downloaded. Though the company will still allow users to upload their own videos, beginning next year it will first require people to complete an "identification protocol" in order to verify their identity. The site will also block all downloading of content "effective immediately," except for "paid downloads within the verified Model Program."
