Sex work has always been under scrutiny in the United States. On two separate incidents, first PayPal, and then Visa and MasterCard have cut ties with Pornhub. The payment processing companies no more offer their services to the adult tube site.
PayPal made its move in November 2019 after it alleged Pornhub of making certain payments without permission. Visa’s and MasterCard’s moves were triggered in response to the allegations that accused the adult tube site of being “infested” with child abuse and rape-related videos.
The later accusations were highlighted by Nicholas Kristof in his New York Times article that underlined the presence of illegal and unethical content on Pornhub. He called on banks and payments companies to seize their cooperation with the adult website. While MasterCard promptly cut down its ties with the platform, Visa suspended the services until it is done with its own investigation.
Pornhub’s response to the defunding
PayPal’s action was received as a devastating incident by Pornhub in its official statement.
“We are all devastated by PayPal’s decision to stop pay-outs to over a hundred thousand performers who rely on them for their livelihoods,” said the adult platform its official blog.
Also, a spokesperson told Vice that decisions like these from PayPal or other major companies do nothing but hard the platform’s efforts to end discrimination and stigma towards sex workers. While the company was devastated by the decision, it still had other payment providers on the site, which would continue to work on the site. The platform was also exploring cryptocurrency options.
The second strike –from Visa and MasterCard made it worse. In response, the adult website made immediate and drastic changes to its platform in January 2021:
- All videos from unverified user accounts were deleted immediately.
- Downloading and uploading is now available to only verified user accounts.
Pornhub performers’ response to the defunding
The features that allowed anyone to upload and download content from Pornhub promoted piracy, unethical content, and made it difficult to sell original content.
The move to ban unverified access was welcomed by the adult performers and verified content creators. They hoped that payment companies would now resume their services, since all illegal content was removed and there remains no possibility of uploading any such content in the future, too.
However, the companies have not still resumed their services, and it seems that it’s never going to happen, too.
Swedish performer Cara Vega says:
“We didn’t have time to prepare for it or to set money aside to pay rent the next month or anything like that,” said Ms Vega.
“Visa and MasterCard acted in a very irresponsible way, leaving people without income overnight.”
Many performers on the platform are worried that the same thing might also happen with other adult platforms who along with Pornhub employ a wide population of sex workers, adult models, and Pornstars across the planet.
While MasterCard and Visa insist that their moves were based on legal concerns and efforts to stamp out illegal activity on their networks, many performers and activists accuse the companies of doing social discrimination against sex workers and the adult industry.
Arguments against the motion debate that the move has not harmed abusers and criminals, but surely has devastated ethical creators, as only verified users were allowed to sell videos. Opinions also claim that Visa, MasterCard, many mainstream businesses are under pressure of religiously motivated groups that advocate a ban on all forms of adult platforms.
Pornhub backs its standing by showcasing its post-ban measure as gutsy and unique to any other platform. It calls out Facebook, where over 84 million cases of child sexual abuse material were reported in the last three years, and yet discriminating moves target Pornhub for being an adult platform.
What’s next for the Pornstars?
Sex workers and adult businesses already felt discriminated against by financial companies and mainstream B2B service providers.
For example –even before the incident, while Visa and MasterCard allowed their payment processing services, many mainstream payment gateway providers denied their services to adult websites by categorizing them into the high-risk segment. As a result, adult websites still rely on high-risk payment service providers, which are comparatively expensive.
Working in the adult or sex industry makes it difficult to access B2B services and sustains lower profit margins due to higher fees. It’s only a matter of time that all popular adult platforms may have to deal with similar consequences as Pornhub.
Adult performer Mary Moody shared with BBC that-
“Pornhub is the largest platform we have access to, by number of viewers and name recognition,” said Ms Moody.
“It comes at the top of Google searches for pretty much any industry worker.”
Many performers also use other adult platforms and subscription sites, such as OnlyFans.
But Ms Moody said making the jump was more difficult than it might appear to outsiders.
“Models who focused on Pornhub are out of a lot of income, and it’s not as easy as it sounds to switch platforms and immediately make money.”
She is also leading an awareness campaign to raise awareness about what defunding adult platforms like Pornhub mean for sex workers.
In all this, if anyone who sustained grave losses, and probably lost their livelihoods are sex workers, adult models, performers, and pornstars, who relied on Pornhub for income. It’s high time adult performers stop relying on third-party platforms for their livelihood.
Today, it’s Pornhub, and someday OnlyFans may face the same fate. It’s obvious that switching from platforms to platforms is just a temporary solution, and this frequent migration would force you to start each time from level-zero.
Building a personal model website seems like an apt and stable solution to make money from adult websites. I don’t deny that creating a website is not an easy job, and it’s not possible to monetize it immediately. However, models who had thousands and millions of loyal followers on Pornhub may make the best out of this alternative with strategic planning and marketing.
Building a model website is not as tough as it seems
Instead of worrying about how to work for Pornhub or how much does Pornhub pay now after the curb, models with a decent number of followers can build a subscription site and devise a more stable earning strategy.
It’s not tough to build a porn site by your own or sell your adult content online via a personal website these days. It’s better to drop the headache of selling on third-party websites and apply the same efforts in building a personal website with subscriptions and other monetization channels.
In fact, you need not even code your website. You can use turnkey solutions like xModel, and get a ready-made model website without writing a single line of code your own. xModel is a turnkey membership CMS for models/performers/sex workers/pornstars. Along with subscriptions, it also supports content selling, physical product selling, and live streaming features for overall monetization on multiple aspects.
With your model website, you can –
- Sell your membership subscriptions.
- Sell digital content: photos, videos.
- Sell physical products.
- Conduct live webcam streaming.
- Receive tips from fans.
Besides, it comes pre-built with payment solutions like Paypal, CCBill, and Bitpay. You need not rely on single payment providers, as you can choose from over 20 payment gateways, which are available as add-ons for the xModel script.
Since xModel is available with open source code, you need not rely on a single web hosting provider. You are free to choose your own web hosting provider. The open-source code also makes it possible to customize the script on your own or by hiring skilled developers.
To conclude
It has been a tough time for Pornhub models for the last two years. The recent blow has only made it worse, but giving up is probably what anti-porn and anti-sex working groups want from you. Relying on third-party platforms seems like an easy resort, as you need not go through the hassles of managing a website, but it’s no more a good idea if you have some long term plans.
You may keep working on third-party platforms for added visibility and marketing, but opting for the strategies that turn you into an entrepreneur would always pay. Rather than being just yet another performer on a giant third-party website, why don’t you build your own.
Things are not going well for giant adult websites. It high time people who rely on them for income start thinking about other alternatives, one of which has been explained in this article. So, choose wisely.