Instagram takes down PornHub's official account

San Francisco: Instagram, the famed Meta-owned social media platform, withdrew the official account of adult entertainment website PornHub after civil rights groups' stringent protest. But so far, Instagram has not revealed the reason behind the withdrawal, IANS reported.

The Pornhub account had 13.1 million followers and more than 6,200 posts before it was taken down, according to Variety.

Anti-PornHub campaigner Laila Mickelwait shared screenshots which suggested that the account was taken down for violating Instagram's community guidelines. In the account, Pornhub had shared non-pornographic videos and images, but it "directly promoted pornography" and featured videos to encourage people to become pornography performers.

Instagram made a move following Visa, and Mastercard cut off payment privileges of TrafficJunky, the advertising arm of Pornhub parent company MindGeek.

In recent years, there has been widespread criticism that PornHub has been hosting facilitating "child abuse material". In 2020, Visa and Mastercard stopped processing payments on PornHub due to the presence of "unlawful content" on the platform.

CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, Dawn Hawkins, said: "Instagram is courageously choosing to stop partnering with Pornhub, and it is time for all corporate entities to follow its example".

Pornhub's Twitter account, with 3.4 million followers, still remains active. Its official YouTube channel has 882,000 subscribers, where it shares "safe-for-work" video content.