‘No Coronavirus Can Leave Us without Sex’: Relations of Complicity and Solidarity on Pornhub

As this study reports, in times of global health crisis, the interactions between users on social media platforms such as Pornhub seem to form solidarity links that grow into global digital communities. This paper applies quantitative, qualitative, and network analysis on the comments of a sample of 166 videos identified as belonging to the ‘COVID-19 porn genre’. The analysis leads to the quest for a community of practice that builds and negotiates shared meanings and values, demonstrates forms of complicity and purpose, and forms of recognised hierarchical structure. The study builds under the shadow of a platformisation dynamics that drives the whole environment of Pornhub penetrating the social relations between users. The paper contributes to a discussion on online communities and, specifically, the possibility of the rise of a global community based on solidarity on porn sites.