Pornhub
Pornhub is a Canadian-owned internet pornography video-sharing website, one of several owned by adult entertainment conglomerate Aylo.[2][3] As of February 2024, Pornhub is the 13th-most-visited website in the world and the second-most-visited adult website, after XVideos.[4]
Type of business
English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Dutch, Czech, Simplified Chinese
Worldwide[a]
Yes
Optional
Online
The site allows visitors to view pornographic videos from various categories, including professional and amateur pornography, and to upload and share their own videos. Content can be flagged if it violates the website's terms of service.[5] The site also hosts the Pornhub Awards annually.
In December 2020, following a New York Times exposé of non-consensual pornography and sex trafficking, payment processors Mastercard and Visa cut their services to Pornhub. Pornhub then removed all videos uploaded by unverified users,[6] reducing the total content from 13 million to 4 million videos.[7] A 2023 documentary, Money Shot: The Pornhub Story, covers the opposition to Pornhub and the views of some pornographic performers.[8]
Search trends
Under the heading of Pornhub Insights, Pornhub regularly releases information extracted from its archive of searches: in what regions it is most used, female searches vis-à-vis male searches, the most popular search terms by year or area, variations in searches that parallel current events, and the like; in the first half of 2017, the top search term in the US was "hentai", and 37% of searchers for gay male porn are women. Every year, it releases a "Year In Review".[104] Because of this it has been called "the Kinsey Report of our time".[105] According to research by data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, 25% of female searches for heterosexual porn on Pornhub involved keywords searching for painful, humiliating, or non-consensual sex.[106][107]
Pornhub have also reported on traffic trends and their relations to large events. Traffic was below usual levels during the solar eclipse of 21 August 2017.[108] During the 2018 Hawaii false missile alert, web traffic to Pornhub in Hawaii fell by 77% (from typical Saturday figures) at 8:23 am, after the alert was sent, and increased 48% above typical levels at 9:01 am, after notification that the alert was erroneous.[109]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when Pornhub offered Pornhub Premium for free, worldwide traffic increased by 18.5%.[110][111]
Blocks and bans
Authorities and organizations throughout the world have implemented a variety of measures and strategies to restrict access to and use of Pornhub.
In 2011, European broadband provider TalkTalk (formerly Tiscali) received some criticism because its internet filter failed to block Pornhub, for over a week. This was due to the issue of child internet safety.[2]
In January 2013, The Huffington Post commented that CBS "refused to air a short commercial for adult-themed site Pornhub during the Super Bowl on Sunday ... . The 20-second spot, which features an older couple sitting on a park bench (that's really all that happens), includes no explicit content."[112] It was rejected because the Federal Communications Commission could hold CBS liable for endorsing pornographic content, as it is illegal to air pornography on US television.[112]
In September 2013, the website was blocked by the Great Firewall in China.[113]
On 12 March 2014, Pornhub was blocked in Russia because one actress looked too young, leading some viewers to think she was a minor.[114][115]
In September 2016, the site was blocked in Russia due to "spreading harmful information to children", and reinstated in April 2017 after specifying the age of users. The site requires Russian users to authenticate themselves via the social network VK.[116][117]
In January 2017, the Government of the Philippines blocked internet users from accessing Pornhub and other pornography websites. The websites were blocked pursuant to Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Law, which prohibits websites from hosting child pornography content.[118]
In October 2018, the Uttarakhand High Court reinstated a ban on Pornhub in India but made it optional for ISPs to leave sites that are free of child pornography unblocked.[119] In order to circumvent the ban,[119][120] Pornhub established a mirror website at Pornhub.net.[121][122]
In November 2020, the government of Thailand blocked Pornhub, amongst other pornography websites.[123]
On September 3, 2022, Instagram banned the website's Instagram account indefinitely.[124] It had 13 million followers and posted non-pornographic material. The ban was lobbied for by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and others.[125]
On December 16, 2022, Pornhub's YouTube account was taken down, only a few days after they were removed from TikTok.[126][127]
In February 2024, the Attorney General of the state of Texas sued Aylo/Pornhub for allegedly not obeying the state's legal age verification law.[128][129][130] As of March 2024, Pornhub and other Aylo owned website have blocked access in Texas, due to the adoption of an age verification law which usually mandates age verification through the use of an identity document. In states where Pornhub is blocked, a message is displayed criticizing such laws.[131]
Media related to Pornhub at Wikimedia Commons