Business Ethics & Corporate Crime Research Universidade de São Paulo
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A light in the end of the tunnel: Pornhub’s Trusted Flagger Program

Image retrieved from: Informe Blumenau

Author: Carolina Christofoletti

Link in original: Click here

When we are up to analyse the adequacy of any compliance program within the sector it operates, we must keep in mind not only, isolated, the risk market in which whoever is writing this compliance rules operated but also what is, from a big picture point of view, the exact place where the issue stays within other stakeholders.

And even though, in terms of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), adult pornography websites tend to have very questionable policies (such as untranslatable terms of service, please sign in to report it and others), the intellectual honesty and neutrality of this author demands not only weak points of compliance programs, but also strong point to be written down.

And in terms of how adult pornography websites are dealing with CSAM content, Pornhub’s Trusted Flagger Program called my attention. And, prior to reading that, we must keep in mind what is the problem that one is trying to solve: In this global fight against Child Sexual Abuse Material, we have other stakeholders that, other than the platforms itself, are getting the CSAM reports and who are trying to contact the platform for removal.

It suddenly becomes obvious that, considering all things that can be reported in an adult pornography website (from copyrights and hate speech to trojan horses), there is a special case that need to be immediately solved: Child Sexual Abuse Material hosted in an adult pornography platform represents a legal, reputational and ethical risk for any pornography business  and cannot be dealt together with the million other reports. There is, in this case, a legal priority.

After all, was a CSAM content reported to the platform and was this report lost between all other report complaints or was its removal delayed, was this report made by a proper authority (a category in which, in some countries, CSAM hotlines are included), the platform is to be blamed by its own disorganization. The file was properly reported, and the removal is delayed. That is what suffices for a judge. The first point to think about is, if creating a priority reporting channel for CSAM (also when it is not reported by any formulary, but directly flagged by users) would also be something interesting. I believe so.

Considering that, let us see what PornHub is proposing:

 “Pornhub Trusted Flagger Program

Pornhub’s Trusted Flagger Program was developed to provide a robust and efficient way for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and statutory offices to alert us of content that potentially violates our Terms of Service.

As a member of the Pornhub Trusted Flagger Program, you will be able to:

  • Report multiple pieces of content at one time;
  • Effect immediate disabling of all valid URLs reported, pending review;
  • Have visibility into decisions on reported content; and
  • Get access to a dedicated support team and a direct line of communication with the Trusted Flagger Program.

All valid and relevant URLs reported by our Trusted Flaggers are automatically disabled, pending review by our dedicated team of moderators. The expertise and high degree of accuracy Trusted Flaggers possess in identifying potentially infringing content increases the speed at which content can be actioned.

If you wish to join the program, please reach out to us to express your interest. Please note that, at this time, we are limiting membership to Non-Governmental Organizations and Statutory Offices. Thank you for your understanding.”

When we read this, the first hypothesis where those procedures would fit come to be, exactly, the cases where a Child Sexual Abuse Material is found by a CSAM hotline, who will now have to deal with the communication issues. Pornhub conditions the use of this privileged channel to a Membership register, opened to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and statutory offices. No doubt that that is, exactly, the case of CSAM hotlines.

The benefits of that are a) multiple reporting systems: What is more than meaningful if you consider that the platform’s reporting formulary include, preliminary, one URL at time b) Feedback: What is highly important for removal purposes c) Communication between hotlines and safety teams: What is a meaningful part of a constant training program d) Immediate suspension.

From my own point of view, the greatest benefit here is giving the registered members the power to “suspend” the contents that they have assessed as being possible CSAM, without the need of battling with the platforms Safety Team on things such as age. After all, the condition is not that the content flagged by the trusted member is CSAM but, rather, that the Trusted Member is somehow specialized in that.

Of course, that is not written on the “Trusted Member Requirements”, but from a general understanding of law, we can derive that the power of the Trusted Member derive not from being a NGO or statutory office, but of having “expertise and high degree of accuracy” on what they are about to flag.

Even though the last decision remains with Pornhub, registered NGOs (and also hotlines) could suspend, until the legal nature of that is decided and with a great authority argument, the access to the file. Does PornHub decide not to remove it and are we talking about a content restored from a flagging done by a trust member, the platform makes it expressly responsible for this decision. After all, it was warned that the content was, potentially, CSAM.

Question is now what the conditions of this Membership are. Not being part from law enforcement of any NGO and considering that the Membership requirements are not displayed in the Program page, I could not check.

Are you responsible for managing any CSAM hotline or NGO fighting Child Sexual Exploitation, do not hesitate to write Pornhub and ask it. A specific formulary of contact would, in this case, have been helpful. Do you proceed with that, I, as a member of the academia, would be more than happy to know what those criteria are, so to continue the evaluation.

“If you wish to join the program, please reach out to us to express your interest. Please note that, at this time, we are limiting membership to Non-Governmental Organizations and Statutory Offices. Thank you for your understanding.”