Two Pornhub executives have resigned after the adult website company came under fire for allegedly hosting nonconsensual sexually explicit videos.
Chief Executive Officer Feras Antoon and Chief Operating Officer David Tassillo resigned from MindGeek, a parent company which hosts Pornhub, after more than a decade of running the adult website.
In a recent statement, MindGeek confirmed the two executives would be parting ways with the company, writing: "Antoon and Tassillo leave MindGeek's day-to-day operations after more than a decade in leadership positions with the company.
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"MindGeek's executive leadership team will run day-to-day operations on an interim basis, with a search underway for replacements."
News of their exit comes after The New Yorker released a report claiming the company's system failed to address videos involving minors and other non-consenting individuals across Pornhub, Brazzers, RedTube and YouPorn for a number of years.
President of the Adult Performance Artist Guild, Alana Evans, believes the resignations will not have much impact on the company. Speaking to the Washington Post, she said: "MindGeek is corporate porn. Other owners and CEOs are far more involved in porn and the product."
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The Luxembourg-based company has been at the centre of controversy in recent years. In 2021, a lawsuit alleged the company violated federal sex trafficking and child pornography laws, instead allowing and profiting from explicit content which featured minors.
in 2020, Visa inc and Mastercard Inc suspended payment processes on Pornhub after a New York Times report alleged there was unlawful content on the website, despite the company having policies in place to protect against nonconsensual content.
This came after online payment service PayPal stopped processing payments to Pornhub in 2019.
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New York Times opinion columnist, Nicholas Kristof, recently slammed Pornhub and accused it of allowing videos of rape scenes and revenge pornography among other nonconsensual videos.
Kristof wrote: "[The] site is infested with rape videos. It monetises child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags."
Pornhub responded to the allegations saying it is 'irresponsible and flagrantly untrue' for Kristof to suggest it allows the sexual abuse of children on its site. It also added that it employs moderators to screen all uploads and remove illegal material.
In a statement to UNILAD, MindGeek said: "MindGeek has enacted the most extensive safeguards in the history of the internet, and the statistics unequivocally demonstrate that MindGeek's policies are effective. NCMEC reported earlier this year that Pornhub reported fewer incidents of CSAM and removed cases of CSAM in the shortest amount of time after being notified among all major platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more.
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"The New Yorker had the opportunity to seriously evaluate what works in fighting illegal material on the internet by looking at the facts, comparing the policies of platforms, and studying the results. Instead, they chose to ignore the fact that MindGeek has more comprehensive and effective policies than any other major platform on the internet, and decided to peddle the same gross mischaracterisations that anti-porn extremists have spewed for decades."
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Topics: Pornhub
Shiala Mahmood