Peeping Platforms: data, surveillance & Pornhub Insights

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Pornhub Insights routinely circulates fun, colourful infographics detailing the porn viewing habits of millions of global users. Porn watching is often conceived of as a fundamentally private activity, but Insights' cheeky posts boast of a media model premised on user surveillance. This talk will review some underlying implications around algorithmically curated media's role in shaping categories of sexual preference on platforms. Please note: while this talk will not include any explicit sexual imagery, it does engage with sexual themes, language and porn content.

*Please note: while this talk will not include any explicit sexual imagery, it does engage with sexual themes, language and porn content.

Topic: Peeping Platforms: data, surveillance & Pornhub Insights

Pornhub Insights routinely circulates fun, colourful infographics detailing the porn viewing habits of millions of global users. Porn watching is often conceived of as a fundamentally private activity, but Insights’ cheeky posts boast of a media model premised on user surveillance. This talk will review some underlying implications around algorithmically curated media’s role in shaping categories of sexual preference on platforms.

Speaker: Maggie MacDonald

Maggie is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information researching the platformization of pornography. With a dissertation focus on Pornhub, she also works on deepfake porn, financial infrastructures, and platform policy, and is currently an independent advisory board member for Pornhub. You can find Maggie’s recent writing in New Media & Society, the Canadian Journal of Communication, and The Walrus, or at @internetmaggie on Twitter and www.internetmaggie.com.

Join us in person:

We’re meeting in Room 480 of the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto (55 St. George Street, north of College St.). There will be signs!