Zara Dar’s six-minute explainer video “So what are Integrals?” has a little over half a million views with 450 likes and an 87 percent positive “thumbs up” review rate. Commenters have said the video, which is a short introduction to one of the fundamental operations of calculus, is “educational,” “great,” and “just incredible.”
“I have to say, as an aerospace engineering student, that you have explained the usefulness of integrals better than my university professor,” one commenter said.
Only a few commenters complained or demanded that Dar take her clothes off, which is impressive because the video and comments were posted to her Pornhub channel, where Dar has been posting educational videos like “What is a neural network?” and “Intuitive Approach to Understanding Probability” for the last year.
When I asked her why she thinks her videos are gaining traction on a porn site, Dar said “I’m not entirely sure, but it could be because my SFW videos stand out against the typical NSFW content on the platform. That contrast might make them more intriguing or refreshing to viewers. But that’s just my speculation.”
Dar, who dropped out of grad school to be a content creator full-time (she also has a Pornhub video about that choice), also posts the same videos to YouTube and has an OnlyFans where she posts adult content, where she says she’s made over a million dollars.
On Wednesday, while the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging a law in Texas that requires age verification for people to view porn sites, Justice Samuel Alito asked if Pornhub was “like the old Playboy magazines,” meaning does the site just offer pornography or content that is not pornographic as well. The answer is that it doesn’t have much in terms of written articles, but there’s a long history of posting non pornographic content to Pornhub. As I wrote almost a decade ago, some people do it as a goof, but it’s also not the worst place to monetize one’s videos, even if they’re not porn. In fact, I learned about Dar’s channel via a post she made on Linkedin, in which she explained that the same educational videos she shares on YouTube make more money per million views on Pornhub because Pornhub offers better rates—$1,000 per million views on Pornhub versus YouTube’s $340 per million views.
For reasons she doesn’t understand, Dar’s Linkedin account was banned after that Linkedin post started going viral.
“My account was banned, seemingly because of this post,” Dar told me. “I received an email stating, ‘We recently removed your profile photo because it does not appear to be a photo of you,’ which was confusing since LinkedIn has never requested ID verification from me. When I tried to log in to update my photo, I discovered my account was banned.”
Dar tried contacting Linkedin support but did not receive a response and she’s still unable to access her account. Linkedin also did not respond to my request for comment.
“I have no issue providing LinkedIn with my ID for verification (as I have done so for many other platforms), but I was under the impression that it’s optional,” Dar told me. “It’s frustrating that verification isn’t required for other users, yet my account was banned for sharing a straightforward fact about my content creation career. I was engaging professionally, but LinkedIn’s strict handling of this situation feels counterproductive to its purpose.”
In the message sent to her by Linkedin asking her to change her profile photo, Linkedin said that profile photos can get flagged for a variety of reasons, including for “being considered offensive.” There was no nudity in Dar’s profile photo.
Ironically, being removed from social media with little explanation or recourse is another good reason for people to share their content on Pornhub. We don’t know exactly why Dar’s Linkedin account was removed because Linkedin won’t explain, but it’s possible it was reported because it was reported by users after going viral on the LinkedinLunatics subreddit, where people share Linkedin posts they feel don’t belong on the professional networking platform. As we’ve reported over the years, this is something that happens to sex workers and adult content creators on other social media sites all the time.
Dar said she makes more money on YouTube overall because that’s where she gets more views, but in addition to higher rates, an added benefit of posting to Pornhub is that Pornhub is not likely to ban her for sharing adult content elsewhere on the web.
“I can't believe this website is banned in Texas!” one commenter said on Dar’s Pornhub video on pi. “They're trying to hinder our education.”
