TNI Bureau: Due to pressure from advocacy groups, Meta-owned Instagram has removed the official account for adult entertainment website PornHub. The reason for the move, however, was not disclosed by the company.
PornHub had 13.1 million Instagram followers and over 6,200 posts before the account was deleted.
PornHub shared non-pornographic footage and images on Instagram, but it “directly promoted pornography” and featured videos to persuade individuals to become pornography performers. According to screenshots shared by anti-PornHub activist Laila Mickelwait, the account was removed for violating Instagram’s community guidelines. The move follows the suspension of payment privileges for Traffic Junky, the advertising arm of PornHub parent company MindGeek, by Visa and Mastercard.
PornHub has faced widespread criticism in recent years for promoting “child sexual abuse content” on its platform. Due to the existence of “unlawful content” on the platform, Visa and Mastercard ended processing payments on PornHub in 2020. “Instagram is courageously choosing to stop partnering with PornHub, and it is time for all corporate entities to follow its example,” said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.