This is interesting considering issues with CSEM far and away plague social media websites significantly worse than porn websites. Credit card companies are super eager to drop porn and sex related vendors, in the United States. The stated reasoning is that this kind of stuff leads to a lot of chargebacks/disputes/fraud, but I suspect this is not the full story, and this news doesn’t do much to quell that concern.

I’m not saying there is no problem whatsoever and nothing should be done. However, Pornhub has come under increasing scrutiny despite an underwhelming amount of evidence that it has a serious endemic problem. Such illegal material could easily end up on any website if it is mistaken to be legal, which unfortunately does happen; it’s not very easy to tell if someone is biologically 18, you are likely underestimating how much the human body can vary from person to person if you think that it’s easy. But, while it’s not a good thing, the bigger picture is that Pornhub is largely not being used to intentionally distribute illegal material, whereas social media and chat programs actually are. Sometimes surprisingly close to out in the open.

Something feels disconcerting here. It’s not that I care personally about this particular action; in truth I have almost only ever seen meme videos on Pornhub. But it feels like it could be a precursor to another push to censor pornography and the internet. Somehow, when eroticism is involved, people either cheer on or simply are ambivalent about censorship. I think this is irrational. The edges of free speech are the only parts that really matter that much. This action here doesn’t really hinder anyone’s expression directly, but it certainly seems like it will have chilling effects that justify future actions that will.

Of course I hope this is mostly nothing and it ends up being purely positive. However, I at least implore some thought here as this didn’t just occur in a vacuum.