Could This Be the End of Pornhub?

The fightback against Big Porn has begun — in America at least. Pornhub’s parent company Aylo, formally known as MindGeek, is currently at the centre of a federal investigation for “knowingly and intentionally” engaging in transactions involving the proceeds of sex trafficking by the operators of GirlsDoPorn.com. GirlsDoPorn was a content partner with Pornhub between 2011 and 2019, with over 670 million views on Pornhub alone. The company was shut down after eight people were charged with sex trafficking crimes, with some imprisoned for more than 20 years.

Over the last few years, numerous investigations, lawsuits and watchdogs have proven that Pornhub is a trafficking and non-consensual content industry hiding in plain sight. In 2019, an investigation by the Sunday Times found that Pornhub hosted indecent images of children as young as three, flagging underage videos that had been on the platform for more than three years and had over 350,000 views. The report found dozens of illegal videos within minutes, including “creepshots” of schoolgirls and clips of men performing sex acts in front of teenagers on buses. In the same year, a mother identified her 15-year-old missing daughter in 60 videos posted to the site by a serial rapist.