Manyvids announces new “Trust & Safety Center” by banning external links, including watermarks
The self-proclaimed “ethical porn site” Manyvids, which in the past has gained attention and applause from performers for taking cheap shots at the common industry practice of banning external links, has joined the dark side. Grouping their new “no external links” policy under the launch of the “Trust and Safety Center” (the language and content of which is a clear reaction to the Pornhub fracas), Manyvids has now banned “external links / URL text and watermarks / text links in vids to other adult platforms”.
Hey @ManyVids this you?
So much for freedom of Sex Workers🙄 pic.twitter.com/WCUP0VOGsD
— 🔞🎀Ashe🌸BLM🍨Top 4.5%🍥🔞 (@LikeMyAshe) February 19, 2021
The reaction to Manyvids’ announcement has been overwhelmingly negative, with comments on both the blog post and tweet pointing out how much Manyvids has changed recently, and the hypocrisy of this decision when their past approach had been to name and shame other companies doing this exact thing. While this is obviously being portrayed as a way to ensure no banned content is being linked to, the way it has been rolled out to performers is clumsy at best and downright insulting at worst. With the recent (and very noticeable) dip in traffic to Manyvids, forcing performers to delete, re-watermark, and re-upload content is a surefire way to decrease the overall amount of content available on the site. Additionally, as a site that primarily directs traffic to the top 100 models and no one else, prohibiting performers from advertising sites that offer features Manyvids does not have, like fan clubs with pre-scheduling options, is likely to convince lower-ranked models that other sites are more worth investing their time and effort.
