Pornhub has been ‘permanently’ banned from Instagram

Meta has officially banned Pornhub from Instagram after ‘repeatedly’ violating its terms and conditions.

The tech giant told Vice: "We've permanently disabled this Instagram account for repeatedly violating our policies.”

While the company didn’t disclose which posts had violated the social media platform’s guidelines, they noted it had to do it with sharing adult content, nudity and sexual solicitation.

They added that the world’s leading porn site had been breaching its policies for years.

Following the ban, Pornhub wrote an open letter to Meta, signed by 63 pornographers, performers, entertainers, sex worker unions and activism organisations.

The letter reads: “Dear Mark Zuckerberg, Adam Mosseri, Nick Clegg, Jennifer Newstead,

“We, the undersigned, represent those in the adult industry that have for years been undermined by Instagram’s opaque, discriminatory and hypocritical enforcement of its own Terms and Policies."

While Pornhub’s Instagram account was disabled three weeks ago, the company initially thought it was a temporary ban. However, the company says that permanently banning the account affects the livelihood of independent creators while further ostracising an already marginalised group.

They added: "Sex workers and performers have been unfairly targeted in the form of bans, shadow bans, suspensions, loss of Live privileges, and content removal, despite taking extra care not to violate Instagram's Community Guidelines.”

The letter alleges Pornhub did not breach any guidelines and demands an explanation for why the account was prohibited.

They also pointed out that while its ‘PG’ content is regularly banned, the platform often favours ‘mainstream brands and celebrities’ as they post racy pictures without any repercussions. 

"Pornhub's safe-for-work account has been disabled for three weeks. In the interim, Kim Kardashian has posted her fully exposed a** to her 330 million followers without any restrictive action from Instagram,” the letter reads.

“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.

“While Kim’s photo continues accumulating likes and making headlines, members of the adult community run the risk of deplatforming if Instagram decides our pants look a bit too tight to meet its arbitrary and selectively-enforced ‘standards.'” 

The move also comes one month after Visa and Mastercard announced they were suspending payment privileges of TrafficJunky, the advertising arm of MindGeek, the parent company of Pornhub, as per Variety.

The announcement was made as MindGeek is being sued for allegedly distributing child pornography.

Topics: News, Instagram, Pornhub, Social Media

Charisa Bossinakis