Reading Pornhub’s authentication systems and deleted archive through Walter Benjamin’s aura

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2020 Pornhub removed 10.6 million videos from their site in the largest deletion of content by a porn publisher. This article uses Walter Benjamin’s concept of the aura to conceptualize Pornhub’s action. I interpret Pornhub’s moderation policies by proposing two types of aura – the ‘fixed’ and the ‘fluid’. Pornhub has attempted to generate a fixed aura around its content to change cultural perceptions of pornography and to defer legal responsibility to identifiable content producers. Pornhub’s fixing of its content has produced a narrowing display that reinforces white heteroporn. The fluid aura is ambivalent, dialectical, and atemporal. As a concept, it can be used to engage with Pornhub’s removed content. The fluid aura retains the agency and distance of the objects of study while providing an account in excess of the representational frame. Crucially, the fluid aura can be perceived when representations have been removed or only exist as faint traces.