Image: © peter/Stock.adobe.com
Pornhub claims it is being unfairly treated by Instagram and mainstream celebrities can post explicit content without being banned.
Pornhub has been permanently banned from Instagram for allegedly violating policies multiple times.
Parent company Meta claimed that Pornhub’s Instagram account has repeatedly violated the platform’s terms of services over the past decade with relation to nudity and sexual content.
A Meta spokesperson told the New York Post that Pornhub had violated Instagram’s rules against “sexual solicitation”, which includes encouraging users to leave Instagram to visit a porn site.
While Meta had disabled the Instagram account a few weeks ago, a spokesperson told Motherboard that the account is now being disabled permanently for “repeatedly violating our policies”.
Pornhub responded to the ban with an open letter on Twitter, which the company said is endorsed by various activism groups and individuals from the adult entertainment industry.
In the letter, Pornhub claims those in the industry have been unfairly treated for years by “Instagram’s opaque, discriminatory and hypocritical enforcement” of its terms and policies.
“Denying us an ability to promote our brands and grow our businesses while continuously erasing, silencing and censoring the presence of sex workers and adult brands is violent and profoundly damaging.”
Pornhub said other celebrities and brands are allowed to share explicit content without repercussions, while its own “fully PG” accounts are banned with no explanation.
It added that Kim Kardashian shared a photo of her bottom to 330m followers “without any restrictive action from Instagram”. Pornhub said this photo was released after Pornhub’s account was disabled for three weeks, prior to the permanent ban.
“We are happy to see that Kim and the artistic team behind the image are free to share their work on the platform, but question why we are denied the same treatment,” Pornhub said.
The open letter demanded an explanation as to “why our accounts are continuously deleted”. It also demanded that Instagram stop discriminating against “those involved in the adult industry”.
The permanent ban has arrived as Pornhub’s parent company, MindGeek, faces accusations that it has not properly cracked down on child abuse and non-consensual content appearing on its sites.
MindGeek was hit with a lawsuit last year, accused of hosting videos of child sexual abuse on Pornhub. Visa and Mastercard cut ties with MindGeek last month amid the lawsuit, Reuters reports.
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