Pornhub Parent Company Admits to Profiting From Sex Trafficking

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Facts

  • Aylo Holdings S.A.R.L., which operates Pornhub and other adult websites, admitted in federal court Thursday to profiting from content depicting sex trafficking victims for years. Under a deal — known as a deferred prosecution agreement — Aylo will pay a $1.8M fine and pay damages to the victims.1
  • In addition, Aylo will be appointed an independent monitor for three years, after which the charges will be dropped.2
  • In 2009, the Canada-based company hosted content made by GirlsDoPorn founder Michael Pratt. Ten years later, a federal grand jury in California found that company guilty of 'deceiving and coercing” women to appear in videos that were posted without their consent. Between 2017 and 2020, Aylo was reportedly paid $106,370 by Pratt's company and made over $700k in ad revenue from its content.3
  • Aylo claims GirlsDoPorn gave them written consent forms signed by the women but didn't know they were signed through coercive means. The company, which said it 'deeply regrets' hosting the material, also said it has not been found guilty of violating any laws related to sex trafficking or sexual exploitation of minors.4
  • Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said the deal 'holds the parent company of Pornhub.com accountable” and establishes oversight of the company and “industry-wide standards for safety and compliance.”5
  • The agreement came one day after the EU announced it would, through an expansion of its Digital Services Act, require Pornhub and two other major porn sites to verify the ages of their users.6

Sources: 1New York Times, 2Daily Mail, 3Variety, 4New York Post, 5Daily Caller and 6Marketwatch.

Narratives

  • Right narrative, as provided by FOX News. For the sake of its consumers and producers, porn should be banned to the greatest extent possible. New York City, in 1994, understood Times Square was the public square, and proceeded to kick out porn theaters. Today, the internet is the public square, and there’s no reason this content should be so widely available. There’s no benefit to society when children as young as 11 can access this material.
  • Left narrative, as provided by Guardian. Cracking down on the dangerous and illegal aspects of the porn industry is important. However, calling for entire bans on adult content would be implausible, given the amount of content already online. It would also criminalize sex workers by imposing a legal moral code on them. Instead, it would be more effective to include porn as a topic in sex health curricula and establish more workers’ rights within the industry.