Editor’s note: This article discusses disturbing pornographic content and sexual crimes.

Pornhub announced momentous changes to the pornography website’s safety measures Tuesday following a New York Times column alleging that the site is “infested with rape videos.”

“Today, we are taking major steps to further protect our community,” Pornhub announced Tuesday. “Going forward, we will only allow properly identified users to upload content. We have banned downloads. We have made some key expansions to our moderation process, and we recently launched a Trusted Flagger Program with dozens of non-profit organizations.”

“Earlier this year, we also partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and next year we will issue our first transparency report,” Pornhub’s statement said.

Pulitzer prize-winning opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof had accused Pornhub of monetizing “child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags,” in a Friday New York Times op-ed.

Pornhub just announced huge changes: a.) allow uploads only from verified users; b.) no downloads; c.) improvements in moderation. Initial take: A great deal depends on how responsibly Pornhub implements these, and it hasn't earned my trust at all, but these seem significant.

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) December 8, 2020

The massively popular pornography website has been listed the 10th-most-visited website in the world, with 3.5 billion visits a month, and profits from almost three billion ad impressions every day, according to Kristof.

“A search for ‘girls under18’ (no space) or ‘14yo’ leads in each case to more than 100,000 videos,” Kristof wrote. “Most aren’t of children being assaulted, but too many are.”

Kristof’s story sparked a massive backlash against the pornography website, prompting lawmakers to call for investigations into the massive pornography website and pushing major credit card companies to review their relationship with Pornhub.

The Times columnist announced Pornhub’s changes in a Tuesday evening tweet, but said that “a great deal will also depend on whether past content, already on the site, is vetted or removed.”

“I’d add that continued monitoring and pressure will be necessary, and that we should also widen the lens to look at other companies,” Kristof said. “XVideos already has a bigger audience than Pornhub, and fewer scruples, and they should be forced to adopt similar measures — and make them work.”

Kristof also thanked the young men and women who shared their stories with him “because they didn’t want other kids to endure what they had suffered.”

“It was their courage, their stories, that made this happen,” he said.

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