Pornhub permanently banned from Instagram

Meta has reportedly banned Pornhub’s Instagram account permanently from the platform for violating its policies.

Earlier this month, Instagram removed Pornhub’s official account following pressure from conservative anti-pornography groups.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) said in a statement that it has been working with a group of international advocates and sharing evidence of “criminality” on Pornhub with Instagram, requesting that the Meta-owned company remove Pornhub.

On Tuesday, a Meta spokesperson told Vice that Pornhub’s Instagram account has been “permanently disabled” for “repeatedly violating” the platform’s policies.

While Instagram has claimed it warned Pornhub about posts violating its terms, the social media platform has not disclosed what those violations specifically were.

Instagram’s account disable policy does mention content would be deleted for violations of its nudity and pornography policies.

In an open letter to Instagram, endorsed by over 60 others including pornographers, performers, and industry activism groups such as the Free Speech Coalition, Pornhub and the co-signatories demanded an explanation on why their accounts were de-platformed.

“We demand an explanation and guidance as to why our accounts are continuously deleted, and why content we spend money creating in order to engage with our audience is removed, even when we do not breach any of Instagram's rules,” they wrote.

“Pornhub’s safe-for-work account has been disabled for three weeks. In the interim, Kim Kardashian has posted her fully exposed ass to her 330 million followers without any restrictive action from Instagram,” the letter noted, referring to a photo of Ms Kardashian as part of an Interview Magazine photoshoot.

The internet pornography website urged Instagram to immediately reinstate all accounts that have not violated any of the Meta-owned platform’s Terms of Services. The account was banned three weeks ago, a move the company initially thought was temporary.

“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 noted in the letter.

“We demand that Instagram immediately end all discrimination toward those involved in the adult industry,” it said.