What’s Happening to Pornhub? Everything to Know in 2024
The undisputed reign of Pornhub over the adult entertainment industry has been highly controversial.
The platform is navigating uncharted waters, from controversies surrounding its content moderation to financial losses and a shifting legal landscape.
This guide aims to shed light on the complex issues surrounding Pornhub, providing a comprehensive overview of its current state and potential future.
US state bans
Laws are being enacted in several states across the country to protect minors from explicit online content, targeting Pornhub, among others. Most of those laws require websites with adult content to verify the age of site visitors.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the state actions going on now:
- Indiana: Senate Bill 17 requires websites with commercial sites containing materials harmful to minors to verify age.
- Kentucky: House Bill 278 mandates age verification for any website displaying sexually explicit content.
- Texas: House Bill 1181, better known as the SCOPE Act, requires age verification on commercial websites that host a large volume of sexually explicit material. This is why Pornhub has blocked access in Texas.
- Arkansas: Act 612 requires age verification on websites with one-third or more of their revenue from pornographic material, hence banning Pornhub.
- Mississippi: Senate Bill 2346 requires all commercial entities publishing material harmful to minors online to have reasonable age verification measures.
- Montana: House Bill 544 requires age verification on websites where a “substantial portion” is deemed harmful to minors.
- North Carolina: House Bill 8, or the PAVE Act, requires age verification for commercial entities that publish or distribute harmful material to minors.
- Virginia: Senate Bill 1515 enacts rigid age verification processes for any website hosting at least 33.3% of “material harmful to minors”.
- Utah: Senate Bill 287 enforces age verification for websites containing a “substantial portion” of material harmful to minors.
- Florida: Similarly, House Bill 3 will go into effect starting January 2025, and it requires age verification for all websites that have a “substantial portion” of material that is harmful to minors, which could lead Pornhub to put in place age verification or block access.
These actions join a growing trend of states actively regulating online adult content through legislation despite significant concerns about privacy, free speech, and potential unintended consequences. This has ultimately led Pornhub to restrict access to its platforms in these states.
Sale to shady private equity firm
By the beginning of 2023, MindGeek’s parent company found itself under increasing pressure and scrutiny. An exposé in The New York Times in December 2022 painted them in a terrible light, revealing all sorts of illegal and exploitative content on their platform.
The subsequent loss of payment support from Visa and Mastercard further compounded their woes.
Desperate for a lifeline, MindGeek turned to Ethical Capital Partners, a private equity firm that swooped in with promises of a fresh start and a more ethical approach. However, the acquisition raised eyebrows.
Despite its name, Ethical Capital Partners has a history of investing in controversial industries. Its website offers little, if any, information about its operations or investors.
People questioned their motives.
Were they genuinely committed to transforming Pornhub, or were they just looking to cash in on its massive user base? Would user privacy and security be paramount, or would profit overtake ethical manners?
The sale to Ethical Capital Partners marked a turning point in Pornhub’s history, one filled with uncertainty and skepticism. It signaled a desperate attempt to escape controversy and complex legal and regulatory troubles.
Now called Aylo – as of August 2023 – the new ownership has vowed to reinvent Pornhub as a safer and more responsible part of the internet. Stringent content moderation policies have gone into effect, and it has invested in technology that can detect illicit content.
What remains to be seen is whether Aylo will turn out to be the leader that promised new accountability and ethics for Pornhub.
Legal battle with the EU
Pornhub and its parent company, MindGeek (now Aylo), are facing a growing legal storm in the European Union.
The EU desires more responsibility and more transparency over content moderation. They’ve even threatened severe fines, adding that access to Pornhub might even be blocked across member states if the site does not clean up its act.
In 2023, the EU Parliament passed a resolution calling for more stringent measures against child sexual abuse material online. That places Pornhub under an intense scrutiny lens, with demands for more accountability and clarity over content moderation.
Some countries, like France and Germany, have threatened to block Pornhub if they don’t comply. This is a huge deal for Pornhub, as they could lose access to some of their biggest markets.
The outcome of this battle could set a precedent for how other adult entertainment platforms operate in the EU and beyond. It’s a high-stakes game, and the whole industry is watching closely.
Lawsuits
Pornhub has been slapped with a series of lawsuits in recent years.
Most notable is the MindGeek and Pornhub lawsuit filed in Alabama in 2020 for allegedly profiting through child sexual abuse material and sex trafficking. The plaintiffs are asking for damages and an injunction to prevent MindGeek from continuing their alleged practices.
In a high-profile case, 34 women have filed a class action against Pornhub and its parent company, MindGeek, alleging that the online platform profited from and facilitated the distribution of videos featuring them that were filmed without their consent or under duress. This class-action litigation exposed the dark underbelly of the industry, highlighting the exploitation and abuse that can occur behind the scenes.
There are also piles of lawsuits against Pornhub for hosting child sexual abuse materials. Many have questioned the severe issues of content moderation and responsibility regarding protecting children on the platform.
OnlyFans
OnlyFans is a subscription-based social network on which content creators can earn money if users subscribe to content. The platform is known for its adult content; however, other genres also host their creators on the site: fitness, music, and cooking are a few examples.
OnlyFans has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the changes across Pornhub, with both adult content creators and viewers alike migrating in droves onto the service.
The platform’s subscription model offers creators a more stable and predictable income stream while providing viewers access to exclusive content.
OnlyFans’ success has also been fueled by its creator-friendly policies, which give creators more control over their content and earnings. The site allows for a more intimate and interactive experience whereby viewers can communicate with creators through private messages and live streams.
The rise of OnlyFans has had a significant impact on the adult entertainment industry. It has challenged studios’ and distributors’ traditional business models and given individual creators far greater control over their careers and finances.
OnlyFans’ continued growth will likely further disrupt the adult entertainment industry as it attracts more creators and viewers.
Project 2025
Conservative activists and Trump loyalists have cooked up an audacious, multi-faceted plan for if they retake the White House in 2024. It is an extraordinarily ambitious document touching everything from healthcare to the economy to the adult entertainment industry.
It explicitly calls for the “outlawing of pornography” and imprisonment for those involved in its production or distribution. The project also serves to shut down technology companies that facilitate adult material distribution.
If implemented, the implications will be far-reaching: the creators of adult content will likely lose their livelihood, the distributors will likely serve time in prison, and the internet as we know it could become a much more restricted place.
While Project 2025 is still just a proposal, its potential impact on the future of adult content in the US is hard to ignore.
Financial woes
What once was a cash cow for its parent company, Aylo, Pornhub is now suffering severe financial blows.
The biggest came in 2020 when Visa and Mastercard stopped processing payments on the platform amid allegations of child sexual abuse material and non-consensual content. The decision cut off their main revenue stream, considering it relied so much on credit card payments.
With advertising dollars also dwindling – thanks to brands wary of being associated with controversy – Pornhub has been forced to rely increasingly on its premium subscription service.
That shift hasn’t been enough, however, to compensate for the lost revenue. To cope, the company has instituted cost-cutting measures, most notably significant layoffs in 2021, coupled with reduced content production.
These financial woes are closely related to the controversies surrounding Pornhub’s content moderation. The struggles of the platform to manage these issues effectively have thus far not only hurt its reputation but also put its financial future at risk.
Conclusion
The future is not clear for Pornhub.
It faces many challenges: financial troubles, legal battles, and a seriously damaged reputation. Whether they will overcome and emerge stronger or succumb to pressures remains to be seen.
One thing is for sure, though: the landscape has changed in the adult entertainment industry, and Pornhub finds itself right in the middle.
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