Tech

What Pornhub’s New Rules Could Mean for the Rest of the Interne‪t‬

Sam Cole talks to CYBER about how changes in porn content moderation could be a harbinger for the rest of the internet.
Pornhub's well known image.
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Let’s be real: most people watch it and it’s about as fundamental to how the internet works as Google: Porn. And when it comes to talking porn online in the modern era, that means Pornhub, the massive YouTube-like platform for porn.

Pornhub, which is easily one of the most popular websites on the internet, recently made headlines when a New York Times expose showed that Pornhub hosts illegal videos. According to the Times Pornhub was a sanctuary for, “child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags.”

The bad press finally forced the site to do what many thought it should’ve done years ago: take down all unverified content and vastly change its content rules. But the story, which caused waves across the adult entertainment and sex worker industries, has provoked  questions surrounding what the future of porn will look like online and who can profit from it.

Motherboard reporter Sam Cole has been doggedly covering this beat for years and is on the show to explain the latest on one of the most clicked sites on the worldwide web.