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Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

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Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#161

Post by jchw »

dragontamer wrote: post #151
jchw wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is, for better or mostly worse, how a lot of sites bootstrap. Crunchyroll is another example.

Crunchyroll at least needed a team of translators to create subtitles for Naruto (and other anime circa the mid 00s). That is to say: Crunchyroll may have copyrihgt-infringed upon anime, but they added value. Naruto and Shippuden never would have found a subtitled audience without that team of translators. (And the English dub was relatively low quality back then, believe it) I'm not sure how Youtube or Pornhub adds…

I’m not saying it’s a direct comparison, just that bootstrapping off of content theft is pretty par for the course for the internet, be it individual creators or entire websites. I also don’t see it as a good thing, but at least with anime fansubbers it is kind of a begrudgingly accepted reality that this kind of activity helps create the market that allows the legitimate player to exist.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#162

Post by Blikkentrekker »

sbank wrote: post #156
Blikkentrekker wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even porn companies that feature of-age performers are highly exploitative and uncomfortably close to human trafficking Why? > I don't think it's unreasonable to argue that some sexual behavior should be considered "bad" - voyeurism, selling yourself for money, extreme fringe interests/fetishes, etc. I don't buy the idea that Pornhub is just an innocent business trying to run their website. They have built an empir…

> Why? The rest of the sentence, which you conveniently left out when quoting, is one why.

That's akin to saying “Construction work is highly exploitative and uncomfortably close to human trafficking — see the case of the Qatar football stadium.”

Obviously providing a single example where it went wrong does not amount to showing a universal criterion, which is what your wording suggested.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#163

Post by slg »

enumjorge wrote: post #126
slg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to admit that the accusations are valid, but are also claiming that this type of reporting is a hit piece. How do you square those two? Also Reddit has been on the receiving end of this reporting before. That has often resulted in incremental improvements as the worst offending subreddits are banned (there used to be an /r/jailbait for example), but their model often doesn't kill that content or the demand f…

The entire comment borders on nonsensical. Something about how board members should watch videos of alleged sexual abuse, some of it involving minors, before their companies make decisions that could impact PornHub? What??

I think that is an uncharitable interpretation of that comment. I read it as OP saying that those people likely watched unverified content that is now down, not necessarily illegal content. It is basically an accusation of puritanical hypocrisy. However the problem with that accusation is that it is extremely difficult to distinguish the unverified and illegal content, especially at scale, and it is why Pornhub went with this extreme measure to remove all unverified content.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#164

Post by weeksie »

jennyyang wrote: post #159
pyrophane wrote: post #47

I don't have any sympathy for Pornhub here. Their entire business is built on stolen content uploaded by anonymous users, and it wasn't until they hollowed out the rest of the industry through theft that they started looking beyond it. I would go so far as to say that the reason Pornhub and other tube sites haven't taken problems like child porn and revenge porn seriously is because doing so would undermine the found…

From the article, Pornhub only had 118 incidences of child porn over the last 3 years whereas Facebook had 84 million incidents of child porn during the same time. So it sounds like Pornhub is taking child porn seriously, and Facebook isn't.

No, it sounds like a big red flag. Far more likely CP wasn't being logged.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#165

Post by rhcom2 »

jennyyang wrote: post #159
pyrophane wrote: post #47

I don't have any sympathy for Pornhub here. Their entire business is built on stolen content uploaded by anonymous users, and it wasn't until they hollowed out the rest of the industry through theft that they started looking beyond it. I would go so far as to say that the reason Pornhub and other tube sites haven't taken problems like child porn and revenge porn seriously is because doing so would undermine the found…

From the article, Pornhub only had 118 incidences of child porn over the last 3 years whereas Facebook had 84 million incidents of child porn during the same time. So it sounds like Pornhub is taking child porn seriously, and Facebook isn't.

It's also possible facebook users are more serious about reporting it.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#166

Post by leetcrew »

wittyreference wrote: post #115
wffurr wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know there are a lot of people on HN with different opinions, right?

I don't think it's unreasonable that the stances that most regularly get highly upvoted to the top of the threads are taken as a gestalt 'HN opinion'.

it's a reasonable mistake to make, but it's probably not correct.

dang made a good post about this recently. I'm having a hard time finding it now (he posts a lot), so I'll just paraphrase. a lot of (sometimes vile) positions are strongly advocated for by a minority of users, but only weakly opposed by the majority. that vocal minority will upvote any friendly post, while the majority will just shake their heads but not necessarily downvote every single post.

so it's actually quite common for the top comment to be against the aggregate opinion of the userbase.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#167

Post by iamacyborg »

mikepurvis wrote: post #104
varispeed wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find crazy is that you can't just start your own payment processor. That space is gatekeeped to the extreme and it is what makes me uneasy about the whole electronic money thing. If we want to part with paper money, we should be allowed to issue our own cards tied to our own money reserves.

No one's stopping you issuing your own card. The barrier is in getting your card accepted by zillions of retailers and online merchants. Having built that network is what entrenches Visa and MC. PayPal has attacked this in the online space by offering merchants a credit card checkout flow that also allows you to pay straight from your linked-directly-to-bank-account PayPal account. Square is attacking it in a similar…

> The barrier is in getting your card accepted by zillions of retailers and online merchants. Having built that network is what entrenches Visa and MC.

Open Banking is interesting in that regard, in that it allows for account to account transactions.

Worldpay have apparently built some tech to support it https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/36039/worldpay-rolls-ou...

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#168

Post by matthewdgreen »

jennyyang wrote: post #159
pyrophane wrote: post #47

I don't have any sympathy for Pornhub here. Their entire business is built on stolen content uploaded by anonymous users, and it wasn't until they hollowed out the rest of the industry through theft that they started looking beyond it. I would go so far as to say that the reason Pornhub and other tube sites haven't taken problems like child porn and revenge porn seriously is because doing so would undermine the found…

From the article, Pornhub only had 118 incidences of child porn over the last 3 years whereas Facebook had 84 million incidents of child porn during the same time. So it sounds like Pornhub is taking child porn seriously, and Facebook isn't.

Two more likely possibilities: (1) Pornhub wasn't really checking, which is an easy way to get good stats.* (2) Many of Facebook's 84 million incidents took place on private groups or Messenger chats with small numbers of participants, whereas a single PornHub upload (counted as "1 incident") could easily reach hundreds of thousands of people. Fundamentally difficult to compare private communications networks with broadcast systems, they provide different opportunities for problematic content.

* ETA: Facebook is an industry leader on CSAM scanning, and has developed both its own algorithms and media databases. So your comment that "Facebook isn't taking the issue seriously" seems like exactly the wrong diagnosis. Facebook's high numbers are a consequence of putting serious effort into this area. (Whether scanning of private messages is actually effective in stopping distribution of the content, that's something I'm more skeptical of.)

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#169

Post by barbecue_sauce »

ascagnel_ wrote: post #133
pr0zac wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the point they are trying to make is Reddit is tying access to pornography to installing the app, thus making an explicit connection between porn and their app, while Apple bans apps featuring adult content from the app store completely.

That ban has been leaky for a while -- HBO & Cinemax have carried pornographic content for decades, yet both have apps in the App Store. On top of that, you could buy HBO & Cinemax directly from Apple before the launch of HBO MAX earlier this year.

It’s a stretch to call anything on HBO or Cinemax pornographic.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#170

Post by jlelse »

varispeed wrote: post #53
IshKebab wrote: post #27

However you feel about this, one thing is clear: MasterCard and Visa have too much power.

What I find crazy is that you can't just start your own payment processor. That space is gatekeeped to the extreme and it is what makes me uneasy about the whole electronic money thing. If we want to part with paper money, we should be allowed to issue our own cards tied to our own money reserves.

In Germany we have Girocard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girocard). It's also more widely accepted than Visa/Mastercard.
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