An Amsterdam court has ordered xHamster, one of the world’s largest pornography websites, to remove all footage featuring Dutch individuals who have not given their explicit permission for their images to be used. Appeal court judges handed down the decision, upholding an earlier lower court ruling.

The case was brought forward by the Dutch campaign group Offlimits, which had received numerous reports of unauthorized films being uploaded to xHamster. Some of these films were allegedly uploaded as acts of revenge, while others were stolen through hacking. Offlimits argued that the presence of these unlicensed videos on the site constituted a severe violation of privacy and consent.

The appeal court’s decision mandates that xHamster, owned by Cyprus-based Hammy Media, must remove all unlicensed footage within three days. Failure to comply will result in a fine of €10,000 per illegal video ($10,702 USD), with the penalties increasing the longer the company delays, up to a maximum of €500,000 ($535,115 USD).

“This ruling underlines the fact that this sort of footage should not be on the internet unless explicit permission has been given,” said Robbert Hoving, director of Offlimits. “Porn sites should take more responsibility for ensuring everything is in order, for everyone who is pictured.”

As one of the leading providers of online pornography with tens of millions of users each month, xHamster now faces significant legal and financial pressure to comply with the court’s order. The company has not yet issued a public statement regarding the ruling.

This decision is part of a growing trend of legal actions aimed at increasing accountability and responsibility within the adult entertainment industry. The ruling highlights the importance of obtaining explicit consent from all individuals featured in adult content and sets a precedent for similar cases in the future.

xHamster must now act quickly to identify and remove all unlicensed Dutch footage from its platform to avoid hefty fines.

The ruling serves as a stark reminder to all online content providers of the legal and ethical obligations they must uphold to protect the privacy and rights of individuals featured in their content.

When you read headlines like “Porn website xhamster.com has been told by judges in Amsterdam that it must stop hosting amateur films for an audience in the Netherlands if the participants have not given consent for them to be placed online,” it tends to catch us int he US off guard because that’s something that’s been illegal in the United States for a while now, as we’ve required model releases and 2257 documentation (age verification) for decades.

In the United States, we pride ourselves on consent being a key principle for working within the adult industry. Let us hope that other countries will soon follow this standard practice.