Pornhub Executive Says Rapists And Child Traffickers Use "Loophole" To Upload Sex Violence And "Make A Lot Of Money"

Ottawa-based private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners (ECP) recently acquired MindGeek, the company behind Pornhub and several other adult websites. While the financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, ECP chair Rocco Meliambro stated the firm aims to evolve the adult entertainment industry, which he believes is being shaped by changing public opinions and regulatory frameworks. ECP's acquisition comes at a time when Pornhub is facing intense scrutiny for hosting non-consensual content, including child sexual abuse material and revenge porn.

The controversy around Pornhub reached a peak in 2020, when Mastercard and Visa suspended payment processing for the website, following a New York Times op-ed that alleged the platform was "infested with rape videos." This move was applauded by anti-pornography advocates but drew criticism from adult performers who argued that it affected their livelihoods. MindGeek, originally founded in Montreal but now Luxembourg-based, has been entangled in numerous legal battles over its content. In 2021, the company settled a lawsuit in California involving 50 women who claimed they had been exploited by the website.

MindGeek has countered these allegations by saying it maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward non-consensual material. The company has implemented multiple measures to curb the distribution of such content, including implementing verification systems for users who upload videos. Despite these steps, both the CEO and COO of MindGeek stepped down from their roles last year, although they remain shareholders.

Sarah Bain, ECP founding partner, expressed confidence in MindGeek's commitment to "trust and safety." She noted that ECP would engage with various stakeholders, including governments, industry representatives, and content creators to bridge the gap between the company's operations and public perceptions. The objective is to ensure that MindGeek's commitment to safety and trust is effectively communicated to the public and all relevant stakeholders.

Coinciding with the acquisition, a new Netflix documentary titled Money Shot: The Pornhub Story has revived the debate around the website and online sexual content regulation. Given Pornhub's status as one of the most-visited sites globally, this acquisition and the surrounding discussions about the ethical dimensions of adult content have far-reaching implications. Pornhub is under even more fire now that one of its executives was caught admitting that rapists and child sex traffickers use the site all the time to upload videos that in turn make the company a large amount of money. Even worse, Pornhub execs know this and turn a blind eye.

Pornhub Executive Says Rapists and Child Traffickers Use "Loophole" To Upload Sex Violence and "Make a Lot of Money"

A 12-minute video was released by Sound Investigations which shows an undercover journalist pulling out insider information from an executive at Pornhub named Mike Farley. He was one of Pornhub's first employees and has been working there for 10 years. Pornhub is now the most trafficked porn website and one of the most viewed sites in the world. It allows anyone to upload sex videos as long as the person uses an ID, but Farley says the loophole to uploading whatever you want (even sexual violence) is uploading videos that don't show people's faces. These videos are even allowed to be monetized.

Farley says that people can upload their ID, and that allows them to upload whatever videos they want, even if that video is stolen from someone else. They can post videos that were taken without consent, they can rip sex tapes from elsewhere that don't belong to them, etc. – and these are still able to be monetized.

When asked if rapists use the loophole, Farley quickly responded, "Of course." They have brought it up to the Pornhub CPO (chief product officer) before, who allegedly responded with, "It's all good. Stop." The executives are well aware that sexual violence and rape videos are all over the site. They've had meetings about this issue, and the CPO reportedly said "it's okay" because he "just wants to make money" and doesn't care about the consequences. Farley says they have corporate lawyers that brief them on what to say if they're ever taken to court over these issues.

The journalist asked if sex traffickers use Pornhub and take advantage of the loophole. "Of course," Farley said.

When asked what might happen if the government would ever find out, Farley replies, "They're not going to do sh*t. Because they're dumb. Because they're not qualified to identify the loophole."

Farley says people are going to get away with posting these sexually violent videos because the woman's face isn't in the video, so they can't identify her, or because it's difficult to match the man's body or penis with that of the suspect. "It's not factual. It's your opinion," he says, so you can't guarantee that the culprit they're trying to catch is the right person.

"You basically don't want to make your company more compliant than it has to be," Farley says, explaining that they are aware of the situation but don't want it to get in the way of making money. "Because then it's just wasted money."

Is there a solution, the journalist asks? Farley suggests you should just reject content that doesn't show the person's identity. This would cause them to lose a lot of money, and that's why his execs don't even entertain this idea for a second.

Pornhub Has Been Ignoring Child Sexual Exploitation Videos for Years

This certainly isn't the first time that Pornhub has been accused of allowing sexual violence to be uploaded on the site. Laila Mickelwait, founder and CEO of Justice Defense Fund, recently took to social media to expose Pornhub's decade-long failure to report child sexual exploitation videos to authorities. Using evidence from a courtroom video, Mickelwait showed that representatives from North America's leading agencies, including the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, confirmed that Pornhub had been knowingly harboring and hiding child rape videos from law enforcement. Despite being legally obligated to report any content that exploits minors, Pornhub failed to do so for 10 years, only coming under scrutiny after a New York Times article exposed the issue.

To exacerbate the situation, a screenshot of a conversation between Pornhub's Sr. Community Manager, Katie, and an anonymous user revealed that the company explicitly discourages reporting such content to law enforcement. Katie advised the concerned user to simply flag the URL on Pornhub's website, stating that if the content hadn't been removed, it was likely because it wasn't illegal.

Mickelwait also shared harrowing accounts of minors who were sexually abused, their ordeals recorded and uploaded onto Pornhub, further accentuating the company's negligence. These stories shed light on the prevalent issue of trafficking and exploitation that appears to be systematically ignored by adult entertainment websites like Pornhub.

The government's role is to step in and regulate exactly this.

Activists like Laila Mickelwait play a pivotal role in raising awareness about the hidden dark corners of the adult entertainment industry, including the exploitation of children. As societal attitudes and regulatory frameworks around adult content are evolving, these revelations underscore the urgent need for stricter oversight, transparency, and accountability within the industry.

Much of our society has been convinced that the free market should allow for this kind of unregulated sexual violence to take place online and allow people to make millions and millions of dollars from it. But the government's role is to step in and regulate exactly this. Unfortunately, our culture has been so pornified and oversexualized that it has become desensitized to witnessing the most vulnerable individuals be exploited at the hands of greedy executives.

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