YouTube removes Pornhub channel, citing several guideline violations

YouTube has removed the official Pornhub channel, the sex site's promotional release for videos, coming eight years after Pornhub launched its account.

Before it was taken down on Friday, the official Pornhub channel had nearly 900,000 subscribers. It was first launched in December 2014. The channel URL now shows a 404 ("not found") error on the web.

According to YouTube, Pornhub violated the platform's policy against linking to external websites that host content that is not allowed on YouTube itself. "After review, we have terminated the Pornhub Official channel following multiple violations of our Community Guidelines," YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon said in a statement to Variety. "We apply our policies equally to everyone, and channels that repeatedly violate or are dedicated to non-compliant content are removed."

A spokesperson for MindGeek, Pornhub's parent company, said the company "denied vehemently” that his YouTube content had linked to porn sites.

"Pornhub maintains the absolute best measures of trust and security on the Internet and takes particular care to ensure that 'he does not violate any of the YouTube Community Guidelines," the company said in a statement. "Unfortunately, this is just the latest example of discrimination against the adult industry, a trend seen in social media and in every other facet of life, especially as groups dishonestly confuse consensual adult content with exploitation."

The MindGeek statement continues: "Performers and sex workers are marginalized groups who rely on social media to engage with their fans, earn money, and support themselves and their families YouTube's random and arbitrary enforcement of its policies against Pornhub and those involved in the adult industry is dangerous and harmful, and we demand that social media companies treat us the same way they treat everyone else."

In early September, Instagram permanently banned Pornhub, citing repeated violations of the site's Community Guidelines, including his ban on sexual solicitation for more than 10 years. A month later, Instagram deactivated a second account that Pornhub had created in an attempt to circumvent the ban on its main account.

Pornhub's YouTube account did not feature sexually explicit material, which is . Instead, Pornhub's official YouTube channel had featured series such as "Advice for Models", "Pornhub Models" and "Pornhub Literacy 101", as well as sections on fashion, music and the Pornhub Awards.

Anti-porn group National Center on Sexual Exploitation had flagged Pornhub YouTube channel for alleged violation earlier Friday, the group said. "Pornhub has lost another way to market and profit from exploitation, and we are grateful to YouTube for removing this predatory company's account," said Lina Nealon, director of corporate and strategic initiatives at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. statement. “Pornhub was driving people directly to its porn site – a violation of YouTube policies – which mounting evidence shows is full of material of child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, rape and sexual abuse. 'image-based sexual abuse.'

In September, Pornhub and dozens of adult industry allies published an open letter accusing Instagram of double standards by banning Pornhub but allowing celebrities like Kim Kardashian to post photos with nudity.

Instagram and YouTube's Pornhub platform comes after Visa and Mastercard cut payment privileges from TrafficJunky, the advertising arm of Pornhub's parent company, MindGeek. Payment processing giants reacted after a Federal Court decision in July denied Visa's request to be removed from a case in which MindGeek is being sued...