Fat-Fingered Instagram Employee Accidentally Unbans Pornhub Account

London, UK - July 30, 2018: The buttons of the photo app Instagram, surrounded by WhatsApp, Facebook, Messages and other apps on the screen of an iPhone.

Instagram accidentally reinstated Pornhub’s account last weekend, before permanently banning it again on Tuesday.

“This was done in error,” according to an Instagram spokesperson. “As we’ve said previously, we permanently disabled this Instagram account for repeatedly violating our policies.”

Instagram’s content rules prohibit nudity and sexual solicitation and it has historically been pretty hot on banning accounts for perceived breaches. The social network had previously flip-flopped on Pornhub’s account, repeatedly banning it and then unbanning it again.

A Pornhub spokesperson told TechCrunch, that they believe the adult streaming platform’s account did not violate any guidelines. Instagram has not commented on the exact reasoning for the ban, or which policies the account violated.

Pornhub even said that it received a notice from Instagram, stating that its ban had been a mistake — though apparently that message itself was sent in error.

After its ban was accidentally lifted, Pornhub released a statement saying that it “always has and will continue to respect the platform’s community guidelines.”

It also added that:

“At a time of increased censorship and discrimination against performers in the adult space, it is critical that platforms like Instagram are inclusive and provide safe communities for creators to express themselves.”

Following its permanent ban in September, Pornhub shared an open letter to Meta execs, stating its case for being allowed back on the platform.

“Sex workers and performers have been unfairly targeted in the form of bans, shadow bans, suspensions, loss of Live privileges and content removal, despite taking extra care not to violate Instagram’s Community Guidelines.

“While mainstream brands and celebrity accounts frequently feature nudity and overt sexuality with no repercussions, our fully PG accounts are regularly banned without adequate explanation… Kim Kardashian has posted her fully exposed her ass to her 330 million followers without any restrictive action from Instagram. 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.”

From Meta’s perspective, having an adult service on the platform is something of a quagmire. US laws designed to curb sex trafficking have made an exception to Section 230 laws that holds online platforms liable for facilitating prostitution and trafficking. Pornhub’s parent company Mindgeek is in the midst of multiple lawsuits that allege it has knowingly profited from child sexual abuse material.

For a platform looking to gain traction with content creators — not sexual ones, anyway — and advertisers, Pornhub’s negative associations would likely prove problematic from a brand safety perspective. This, of course, is regardless of the fact that Pornhub is the 13th most-visited website in the world.

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