xHamster provides various pornographic videos, photos, fuclone and
erotic stories grouped under categories catering to specific
fetishes or sexual preferences. In addition to prerecorded videos, users can view
live streams of paid models; the model can interact with several users by means of an online chat service. Models can also activate a "Tip" button, which allows users to provide the models
additional money. Since 2017, xHamster has used an
artificial intelligence model that scans material on its website to target individual user preferences. In reaction to growing demand for tech-related content, xHamster created a
virtual reality platform to explore opportunities for
VR techniques in the porn industry. xHamster also contains several social networking features, including user profiles, a commenting and rating system, and the ability to interact by adding others as "friends" or subscribing to another's content. In August 2020, xHamster came under criticism for the
deepfake pornography videos the site hosts. When asked about xHamster's policy on deepfake videos, Alex Hawkins reported that while the company lacks a specific policy regarding deepfakes, it would remove such videos when it became aware of them, as they are a violation of the site's terms of use.
HTTPS In January 2017, xHamster became one of the first major adult sites to incorporate
HTTPS encryption. HTTPS allows for privacy, malware protection, and the integrity of information exchange. Alex Hawkins said that one of the reasons for HTTPS was because xHamster receives millions of visitors from countries where pornography is illegal.
Security In April 2013, Conrad Longmore, a cyber security researcher, found that xHamster and
PornHub were attacked with
malvertisements. In September 2015, xHamster was hit with another malvertising attack along with
YouPorn and
PornHub. TrafficHaus reported that it might be the result of a breach. On 28 November 2016, it was revealed that the usernames, email addresses and passwords of 380,000 users were stolen. In an effort to maintain user anonymity, xHamster stated in a ''
Men's Health'' interview that they limit third-party access to user information when sending viewer data to marketing and analytics groups. While these security measures do not necessarily eliminate the possibility of linking a "
browser fingerprint" and IP address to a user's personal identity, xHamster claims that it does not actively identify individuals unless one decides to "opt in to providing more personal, identifiable info". but was opposed for encouraging sexual behaviour and allowing children to be taught how to have sex. The
bill's sponsor criticized the trend of leaving sexual education to pornographic websites such as xHamster and
Pornhub. In April 2017, in response to US President Donald Trump's decision to allow states to deny federal money to Planned Parenthood, xHamster stated that they would be posting to their site information on Planned Parenthood with a popup encouraging donations to the organization. The post states, "Porn stars and amateurs alike depend on increased reproductive rights, access to birth control and low-cost STI screenings, and non-judgmental sexual health education".
Product history In November 2016, the company released its own beer, xHamster beer. The beer is an 8.5% ABV Belgian Triple-style ale. Costing €3.90 for 0.55 liters, it sold out within five days. In May 2017, xHamster partnered with Dutch inventor Moos Neimeijer to create Minimeyes, a motion sensor Bluetooth device that uses infrared to monitor the room and signals the computer to shut all windows and sound when an intrusion is detected. In June 2017, xHamster released a
sex doll named xHamsterina in collaboration with the manufacturer iDoll. Since October 2017, xHamster has launched a product campaign that addresses "owners of apocalypse bunkers". Against receipt, owners receive some of the company's products and videos for free.
Censorship xHamster has been blocked by various governments. In August 2015, the
government of India ordered
Internet service providers to block several sites, including xHamster, under the
IT Act. In Russia, a local court in the
Republic of Tatarstan ruled in favour of a block on xHamster and other pornographic websites in April 2014; the ruling was passed on a year later to
Roskomnadzor, the state media overseer. Legislation to restrict pornographic sites includes efforts targeted at reducing
human trafficking which may mandate electronic manufacturers to install content filters to restrict "obscene" material. Nevertheless, organizations in support of free speech have been speaking out against the efforts to include porn sites such as xHamster which noted 125 million clicks from Thailand and 95 million clicks from users in Turkey, where the site is banned. Other attempts at censorship have their origins in violating
net neutrality, whereby governments may restrict bandwidth to various Internet categories. xHamster's Alex Hawkins stated, "As an international company, we see every day how restrictive governments use regulatory tools, like traffic throttling, to limit access to not only porn but political speech". In September 2018, the Nepali government announced a ban on pornographic websites in response to public outcry regarding the rape and murder of a young Nepali girl. A few weeks later, xHamster released a graph that showed that after a slight dip in usage, traffic to its site from Nepal resurged to previous levels. India blocked xHamster again in late 2018. News discussions of India's porn ban cited both xHamster's data on Nepal as well as the site's data on traffic from China following that country's 2018 porn ban, which resulted in an 81% decline in visitors from China to the xHamster site. As a step to promote "healthy relationship, sex, and consent", the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) announced in January 2019 that it would require websites hosting pornography such as xHamster to implement "rigorous" third-party age-verification prior to web entry. This legal measure was designed to restrict access to internet pornography only to viewers of legal age, which is 18 in the UK. An alternative to directly verifying one's age is the option of purchasing a "porn pass" from a designated UK retailer, allowing viewers over the age of 18 to confirm their age anonymously. of the UK rule, porn providers, producers, actors, and civil rights advocates claim that underage porn viewership stems from broader societal issues left unresolved by the new law. After the third delay for the planned UK age-verification regulations, UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright announced in late June 2019 that, besides the delay, he was wary about how the enactment and enforcement of national age-verification rules would vary greatly from nation to nation, much "like pre-EU Europe". In January 2020, State Representative Brady Brammer of the US state of Utah sponsored a bill that would require a "warning label" on "adult content" in an effort to inform potential viewers of supposed dangers associated with porn consumption on youth. Salt Lake City's FOX 13 reported that the "warning label" concept was "modeled after California's toxic product warning labels". In Germany, in July 2021, cases have been filed by the
Commission for Youth Media Protection (KJM) at a
Düsseldorf court since 2020 requiring MindGeek's subsidiaries and xHamster to request age verification. Four companies declined to require age verification, and the KJM has issued a blanket ban on the IP addresses of MindGeek websites. The ruling was to be issued in August 2021.
Copyright infringement In 2011, xHamster was sued by Fraserside Holdings, Ltd., a producer of adult films and a subsidiary of
Private Media Group, Inc. Fraserside and Private alleged that xHamster had infringed on their copyrights by streaming copies of their adult media over the Internet. Fraserside brought the case in
Iowa, and in 2012 Judge Mark Bennett found that US courts lacked jurisdiction over xHamster because it is a Cyprus-based company with "no offices in Iowa, no employees in Iowa, no telephone number in Iowa[;] ... xHamster does not advertise in Iowa[;] No xHamster officer or director has ever visited Iowa[; and] ... All of xHamster's servers are located outside of the United States". The copyright infringement case was dismissed.
Celebrity involvement As a part of the marketing strategy, xHamster increasingly publishes job offers to celebrities or persons of temporary public interest. In November 2017, xHamster offered Julie Briskman a job in its marketing & social media team via
Twitter after her old employer terminated her. Briskman had attracted attention for flipping the finger at Donald Trump while passing his motorcade on a bike. After
Pusha T accused
Drake in a diss track of denying a child, xHamster noticed an increase in search inquiries over 2700% for the alleged mother and former porn actress Rosee Divine. In May 2018, in the aftermath of the track's release, Divine was offered a job as an official xHamster spokesmodel. In June 2018, Australian rapper
Iggy Azalea received a job offer after posting twerking videos on her social media accounts. In September 2016, Alex Hawkins, speaking for xHamster, confirmed that it had purchased a sex tape alleged to portray American actress
Alexis Arquette, which was put up for sale by an ex-lover shortly after her death. xHamster destroyed all copies of it, announcing that "Ms. Arquette was an icon and activist in the trans community and we could not see someone smear her memory the way the selling party was trying to do". Following the airing of a Lifetime Network documentary-style film,
Surviving R. Kelly, xHamster reported a 388% increase in R. Kelly-related searches since January 2019. The Lifetime film presents
R. Kelly's arrest, trial, and acquittal on child pornography charges between 2002 and 2008. Censored from xHamster's website, the "infamous" sex tape features the hip-hop artist engaged in sexual relations with and urinating on an underage girl. In a bid to reprimand viewers who search for the sex tape, xHamster denounced seeking the tape as both "illegal" and "immoral". After nude outtakes from a 2016
GQ Magazine photoshoot of Iggy Azalea were leaked on Twitter in May 2019, xHamster defended the rapper's right to prevent the images' widespread accessibility. More than four years after retiring from porn,
Mia Khalifa remains one of the most-searched female actresses on xHamster, with over 780 million views, according to a 2019
Washington Post article. Khalifa is best known for starring in a film in which she wears a hijab, garnering public criticism and even death threats from the terrorist organization ISIS.
COVID-19 pandemic Early in the
COVID-19 global pandemic, xHamster offered free Premium access until the end of March to places affected by the virus such as Tehran, Iran; Daegu, South Korea; Wuhan, China; the Lombardy and Veneto regions of Northern Italy; and Adeje, Canary Islands. The company issued the offer via their official Twitter page with the tagline, "Stay safe with xHamster". As the pandemic spread, COVID-19-themed porn began appearing on xHamster and other streaming sites in early March 2020. Coupled with this boom under quarantine is a marked shift towards amateur production on paid access platforms such as xHamsterLive Sex Webcams,
FanCentro, and
OnlyFans. According to Hawkins, while interest in traditional categories of porn such as MILF and incest roleplay porn has decreased, demand for public sex scenes, kissing, and COVID-19-related adult content has surged. Hawkins attributed this to a desire for porn that reflects current issues and predicted that trends would return to normal with the pandemic under control.
LGBTQ+ In honor of Pride Month in June 2020 the site held a 3-day live cam fundraiser, inviting activists, artists, sex workers, and LGBTQ+ content creators to submit 15–30-minute segments of content. The content was promoted on the site's social media channels and through its Pride partner Stripchat, and all proceeds were donated to the trans and sex worker charities the
Sylvia Rivera Law Project, the
Sex Workers Outreach Project and
Rainbow Railroad.
Illegal content Until 2021, photos and videos could be uploaded anonymously on xHamster.
Vice reported in 2020 that, according to first-hand research, xHamster used unpaid, untrained and anonymous volunteer moderators, who were observed arguing over what criteria could be used to identify a minor in porn footage. The volunteers were explicitly asked by xHamster to wave through content whose legality was in doubt. xHamster switched its video moderation to be done by paid employees, declining to comment on the reason. ==User trends==