The celebration of exploitation: A case study in platform promotion of users’ data

Abstract

This article explores how a large digital platform exploits its user data to legitimise itself through the tone, form and content of its public-facing outputs. Our case study is the annual Insights (Year in Review) reports released by the pornographic platform Pornhub between 2013 and 2024, which we engage with as cultural artefacts and upon which we conduct detailed content and discourse analysis. These reports, Pornhub claims, are based on the extensive data captured about every unique visitor who accesses the site each year. We show that, in the reports, Pornhub works actively to legitimise and celebrate a multifaceted range of practices which exploit the data gathered, often unknowingly, from users. These practices rely upon the company’s platform infrastructure and use of social media logics. The Insights reports serve as a stark reminder of the power platforms have to exploit their users’ data to create celebratory narratives which elide complex ethical questions.