The official account of the adult entertainment website Pornhub has been suspended by Meta-owned Instagram. Prior to its suspension, Pornhub had 13.1 million followers and more than 6,200 posts on its Instagram account. There has, however, been no comment from Meta about the reason behind the move, reports Variety. This move comes amid mounting public pressure as tech giants have started cracking down on allegations of abuse and illegal content online. Screenshots shared by an anti-Pornhub campaigner suggest that the account was suspended for violating Instagram’s community guidelines. XXX Website PornHub Is Removed by Meta-Owned Instagram, Adult Entertainment Site Official Account Had 13.1 Million Followers.

Despite this suspension, Pornhub’s official accounts that are still active can be found on Twitter, with 3.4 million followers, and on YouTube, where its channel has 8,83,000 subscribers, where “safe-for-work” video content is shared. This move by Instagram also comes one month after Visa and Mastercard cut off payment privileges of TrafficJunky, which is the advertising arm of Pornhub’s parent company MindGeek. This was also after a federal court ruling in July rejecting Visa’s request to be removed from a case in which MindGeek was being sued for allegedly distributing child pornography. It was alleged that Visa knowingly facilitated MindGeek’s ability to monetise the illegal content, according to Variety.

Pornhub Official Twitter Account
Pornhub YouTube Page

Pornhub’s Instagram account had shared non-pornographic videos and images, as Instagram has a very strict no nudity policy. But according to Dawn Hawkins, the CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, who is among a group of advocates that lobbied Instagram to remove Pornhub’s account, the account had “directly promoted pornography” and they featured videos like “Next Career Goal” encouraging people to become pornography performers. “Instagram is courageously choosing to stop partnering with Pornhub, and it is time for all corporate entities to follow its example,” said Hawkins.

It is not immediately clear why Pornhub’s account was removed and there has been no confirmation or comment from Meta on the same. This move also comes after widespread criticism of Pornhub in recent years for allegedly facilitating “child abuse material.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 08, 2022 04:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).