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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

#251
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Their entire business is built on stolen content uploaded by anonymous users, Not disagreeing with you, but, to be fair, that was exactly Youtube's recipe for success, and still is to some extent. I never understood how Youtube could get away with that.

> that was exactly Youtube's recipe for success Disagree. ContentID was a proprietary tech for content recognition that made YouTube not get inundated with copyrighted material. YT is successful because they handled the issue, not because they didn't.

YouTube was successful long before ContentID. Perhaps they managed to stay successful by handling the issue, but their initial success was certainly not due to handling the issue.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#252
The action of MasterCard here could be a blessing in disguise. To the extent that the major credit card platforms drop porn, alternative payment methods will become mainstream, and the credit cards will gradually cease to be gatekeepers.

The demand for porn won't be affected by such bans, fappers worldwide will interpret it as damage and route around it.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stealing is the #1 growth-hack.

It seems somewhat arbitrary where the line is drawn between "growth hack" and "clearly undermining copyrighted content" Thinking specifically about Napster and MegaUpload. Is it because there was no value beyond simply sharing files? If there was a presentation layer + user accounts on top, would they have been spared?

There was value beyond sharing files, music sharing services had decent search and music previewing.

I think a music sharing site I used let you see the other music files a user was sharing, so if you thought they had good taste you could check out other things too.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#254
post #6

I'm surprised at how much impact the NYT's expose (I would personally consider it more of a hit piece) has had. I naively assumed that PornHub, as a top-10 site on the web would be immune to such a piece, but I guess I was wrong. How many of the members of the NYT and the Visa and Mastercard boards who created on this outcome watched the videos that are now down? Probably a majority of them, but that wasn't enough to…

> I'm surprised at how much impact the NYT's expose (I would personally consider it more of a hit piece) has had. I naively assumed that PornHub, as a top-10 site on the web would be immune to such a piece, but I guess I was wrong.

The NYT is among a small subset of papers that is read by elites and captains of industry. Most of the people at the top of large credit card companies heard this from the NYT, not from customer complaints or lower-level employees, and they immediately thought about the PR implications.

> How many of the members of the NYT and the Visa and Mastercard boards who created on this outcome watched the videos that are now down? Probably a majority of them, but that wasn't enough to stop the moral panic I guess.

Who knows? But that's not why they are cutting off payments. They are cutting off payments because associating with a pornography site that was called out in an NYT op-ed is a bad look.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#255
There are comments on other articles (like https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/12/pornhub-purges-a...) where people are quoting statistics that suggest that PornHub has very little problematic content compared to other sites, such as Facebook.

So the question is - why don't Visa and Mastercard take issue with those other platforms? Are they going after Pornhub simply because it sounds "bad"? Is it because they are caving to pressure from religious groups or feminist groups or some other organization? Or is it because other offenders may espouse political views that Visa/Mastercard are aligned to? Or is it that Pornhub is smaller and they can afford to lose them? Either way, I am not a fan of duopolists picking winners and losers, instead of the law picking them.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#256
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less sympathetic plaintiffs?

I would hope that the courts would not be præjudiced against the plaintiff simply for being pornography producers. I would, sadly, also not be entirely surprised to find out that the courts are.

Well at issue is why, hypothetically, YT or PH might find themselves before the bar.

YouTube would be afraid of being sued for copyright infringement. PornHub is legitimately afraid of being indicted in a criminal conspiracy to distribute child pornography.

With respect to just the copyright claim, I don't think there would necessarily be any bias, as it would be pitting pornography producers vs. pornography distributers. Both pretty slimy if you feel that way.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#257

This is undoubtedly a positive move, though I do not believe it will be enough to satisfy the likes of the credit card companies. They are requiring ID verification (i.e. that you're 18 or over) to upload content. As much as I am privacy-minded, the idea that someone could upload an explicit video to Pornhub without verifying that they were 18 is mind-boggling. This is also a net positive for content producers on Por…

A service that would allow users to upload their KYC info, and then provide them with unique tokens per site that can be used on 3rd party sites as nonces would be a decent way around having to verify on each site.

Or just let the whole middleman as a service industry keep rotting, and direct your technical energy towards rebuilding services on distributed technologies that won't succumb to the whims of the status quo power structure. What made the Internet great was being an unregulated frontier, and we can see that everywhere the legacy system jams its tentacles ends up turning to commercialized milquetoast shit.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drink alcohol, and I am all for that freedom, but it's not "broadly harmless."

That all depends what you compare it to. 40% of the US population has obesity. I doubt 40% have a drinking problem. Yet any discussion of banning junk food is verboten, and no one seems to care that the US drinking age is way higher than most similar countries...

Yeah, but obesity doesn't destroy your ability to function in society. Would you rather have obese parents, or alcoholic parents?

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#259
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Their entire business is built on stolen content uploaded by anonymous users, Not disagreeing with you, but, to be fair, that was exactly Youtube's recipe for success, and still is to some extent. I never understood how Youtube could get away with that.

> that was exactly Youtube's recipe for success Disagree. ContentID was a proprietary tech for content recognition that made YouTube not get inundated with copyrighted material. YT is successful because they handled the issue, not because they didn't.

Youtube in the mid-to-early 2000s was famous for being the place to get anything. Times have changed.

Re: Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform

#260
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less sympathetic plaintiffs?

I would hope that the courts would not be præjudiced against the plaintiff simply for being pornography producers. I would, sadly, also not be entirely surprised to find out that the courts are.

Considering how hard it is for sex workers to press rape charges, that wouldn't surprise me neither.
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