Gun enthusiasts turn to PornHub following YouTube firearms clampdown Pro-gun video bloggers have announced plans to move their content to porn website PornHub, after YouTube banned footage of the […]

Pro-gun video bloggers have announced plans to move their content to porn website PornHub, after YouTube banned footage of the manufacture or modification of guns.

Google-owned YouTube will prevent users from uploading videos promoting the sale of guns and accessories, alongside instructional content on how to assemble and fire them.

The move has angered YouTube’s community of gun enthusiasts, including Karl Kasarda and Ian McCollum, who run channel InRange TV on the site, who said they will start sharing videos on PornHub.

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“YouTube’s newly released released vague and one-sided firearms policy makes it abundantly clear that YouTube cannot be counted upon to be a safe harbour for a wide variety of views and subject matter,” the pair wrote on Facebook.

“PornHub has a history of being a proactive voice in the online community, as well as operating a resilient and robust video streaming platform.”

Gun lobbying group the National Shooting Sports Foundation said it feared the ban would be extended beyond the gun-related topics stated in YouTube’s guidelines.

“We see the real potential for the blocking of educational content that serves instructional, skill-building and even safety purposes,” it said in a statement.

“Much like Facebook, YouTube now acts as a virtual public square. The exercise of what amounts to censorship, then, can legitimately be viewed as the stifling of commercial free speech.”

YOUTUBE’S ANTI-GUN POLICIES PROHIBIT VIDEOS WHICH: – show how to make a firearm, ammunition, high-capacity magazine or homemade silencers – are designed to sell guns or specific accessories including high-capacity magazines and tools that convert a firearm to automatic fire – show how to convert a firearm to automatic or simulated-automatic fire – show how to install such accessories or modifications

PornHub is the internet’s largest free porn site, receiving more than 28.5bn visitors in 2017 and averaging 81m visitors per day and 800 searches made per second. More than 4bn videos were uploaded by users over the same period.

“We routinely make updates and adjustments to our enforcement guidelines across all of our policies,” a YouTube spokeswoman said in a statement. “While we’ve long prohibited the sale of firearms, we recently notified creators of updates we will be making around content promoting the sale or manufacture of firearms and their accessories.”

The ban comes in the wake of the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed. Gun owners across the US shared footage and photos of themselves destroying their guns in response, and the National Rifle Association (NRA) has since filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block new legislation that will place stricter controls on the sale of guns in Florida.

YouTube has been criticised for its content curation methods – which are largely decided by algorithms and not humans, allowing inappropriate material to make its way on to the platform.