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Three of the world’s biggest pornography sites will be hit with new regulatory curbs including stricter requirements on age verification, after EU regulators determined the adult platforms fell within the scope of a landmark law designed to police content online.
Xvideos, Pornhub and Stripchat will be from April subject to the obligations of “very large online platforms” under the Digital Services Act (DSA), according to three people familiar with the move.
That designation applies to platforms with more than 45mn users and has so far been applied to tech groups such as Facebook, Wikipedia and TikTok.
The adult websites caught by the legislation will be forced to comply with a series of stringent measures, including being forced to apply systems that can verify the age of users, according to people familiar with the plans.
Other measures include new responsibilities to take down illegal content such as non-consensual videos, and becoming subject to external audits to ensure they comply with rules. An announcement on the EU’s decision is expected on Wednesday.
The three online porn platforms are among some of the world’s most visited sites. Xvideos alone has 160mn monthly visitors in the bloc, according to people familiar with EU regulators’ analysis, representing about a third of EU citizens.
Companies that fail to follow the new EU digital rules face fines of up to 6 per cent of their global turnover.
Canada-based Pornhub said it had only 33mn users in the EU and did not meet the DSA’s threshold. Stripchat, as well as Prague-headquartered Xvideos, did not respond to requests for comment.
The DSA represents a landmark overhaul of the bloc’s digital rules. It sets new standards for policing hate speech, disinformation and counterfeits online for large digital platforms. In April, the European Commission designated a total of 19 companies with special obligations under the law.
EU regulators have used the law to open an official probe into Elon Musk’s X over its record of policing content related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, and have sent requests to TikTok and YouTube to provide more information on their methods in regards to policing content
Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner in charge of implementing the DSA, said: “I have been very clear that creating a safer online environment for our children is an enforcement priority under the DSA.”
Regulators across the world have struggled to police so-called user-generated sites, which rely on individuals to post content and have been criticised for harbouring harmful and illegal material.
Porn sites have proven particularly difficult to rein in, as most of the large so-called tube sites, such as Pornhub and Xvideos, are owned by a handful of secretive companies.
The company behind Pornhub this year changed its name from MindGeek to Aylo, as it was bought by a freshly launched venture called Ethical Capital Partners that sought to distance itself from a string of scandals. One includes a US lawsuit where Pornhub, alongside Visa, is being accused of having profited from a video of a sexual nature featuring a minor.
Visa at the time said it disagreed “strongly” with a court’s decision to dismiss its argument that allegations being tested had been based “entirely on the independent actions of parties other than Visa”. Pornhub has also denied allegations of wrongdoing.
No adult sites responded to the EU’s initial request for companies with more than 45mn users to come forward, according to three people close to the EU’s process. Regulators took several months to identify the three porn platforms as potentially falling within the requirements of the DSA, while deciding that several other popular adult websites did not.
Other European countries have tried to regulate porn sites, with both France and Germany having taken steps to force adult companies to verify the age of users.
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