Instagram removes PornHub's account as pressure from campaigners grows – The Verge

Instagram has removed the official account for PornHub as pressure from campaigners against the site grows. The news was first reported by Variety, which notes that at the time of its removal, PornHub’s Instagram account had some 13.1 million followers and 6,200 posts. The account posted safe-for-work content that promoted PornHub’s various videos and performers. PornHub still operates popular accounts on other social media platforms like Twitter. It’s not clear exactly why Instagram’s parent company Meta removed the account, though screenshots shared by anti-PornHub campaigner Laila Mickelwait suggest the account was taken down for violating Instagram’s community guidelines. The Verge has reached out to Meta for confirmation and details, and will update this story if we hear back. Mickelwait is the founder of the “TraffickingHub” campaign: an advocacy group devoted to “shutting down Pornhub and holding its executives accountable for enabling, distributing and profiting from rape, child abuse, sex trafficking and criminal image based sexual abuse.” Mickelwait positions herself as an anti-sex-trafficking campaigner, but critics note her connections to evangelical Christian groups that advocate the total abolition of all sex work and commercial pornography. According to Mickelwait’s own website, she previously worked at Exodus Cry, a Christian “abolitionist” group that…
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