BRUSSELS — The European Commission plans to conduct a study to determine how well adult sites Pornhub, XVideos and XNXX are addressing illegal content and other potential harms under the EU’s Digital Services Act.
A posting on the commission’s website, titled “Gender-based violence and illegal content on pornographic platforms,” details the plan.
The posting notes that Pornhub, XVideos and XNXX are designated as “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOPs) under the DSA, due to their number of average monthly active recipients in the EU. VLOPs are subject to greater scrutiny when it comes to compliance with provisions of the DSA.
Instigation of the study comes in the wake of a previous announcement in May, which revealed that the commission had initiated formal proceedings against the three sites, as well as Stripchat, for “suspected breaches” of the DSA.
“The objective of the project is to generate evidence-based insights grounded in the lived experiences of performers, content creators, and victims who have been harmed by illegal content distributed through these services,” the posting reads.
The study will reportedly examine how the sites deal with reports of CSAM, nonconsensual intimate image sharing, cyberstalking and unauthorized use of copyrighted material. It will also assess how the platforms verify the identity, age and consent of individuals appearing in uploaded or livestreamed content.
“This analysis will also explore how performer-led practices, such as community-developed consent frameworks, the use of intimacy coordinators, and individual performer contracts, are integrated into platform-level systems,” the posting notes. “Special attention will be given to the specific challenges presented by live camming, an unscripted and spontaneous content format, and the safeguards in place to prevent trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation.”
The commission intends to pay a contractor up to 142,000 euros to conduct the study, which will involve collecting data through interviews and surveys across the EU over a period of 12 months.