Pornhub owner sold to Ethical Capital Partners for $1.2bn
Mindgeek, owner of Pornhub, was acquired by private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners in the heat of a culture war around online access to sexually explicit content.
Pornhub is one of the largest adult entertainment websites on the internet, and has been under intense scrutiny for previously hosting videos that depicted child sexual abuse. After a New York Times opinion piece criticized the platform, Visa and Mastercard suspended services from the site. Pornhub deleted all of its unverified content and changed who it allowed to upload to the site, but continued to struggle to shake its critics.
Despite the controversy surrounding Pornhub, Ethical Capital Partners' vice president of compliance, Solomon Friedman, said there was massive social, financial, and technological value in sharing how Mindgeek hosts and moderates content about sex-positive expression between consenting adults. Friedman told NBC News that Ethical Capital Partners will have complete control over its new assets. In a press release announcing the acquisition, the firm says it is looking for investment opportunities in industries that require principled ethical leadership. Friedman, a defense lawyer for almost 15 years, has worked on litigation related to investigating, detecting and deterring child sexual abuse material.
Mindgeek rarely spoke out in the years following the New York Times op-ed, but its new ownership is boldly asserting Pornhub's right to exist.
Friedman said that Mindgeek's tools for screening content bad behavior were a key reason Ethical Capital Partners made the acquisition. Mindgeek and Pornhub have a verified uploader program, a law enforcement portal and a suite of tools to screen content and track stolen content.
Friedman said that there were enormous opportunities in taking these tools and sharing them with the world.
In 2021 it took Pornhub a bit less time to remove child sex abuse material CSAM than other platforms, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children NCMEC Pornhub responded to three notifications of CSAM from NCMEC in less than five hours on average, compared to the total average from all websites, which was slightly more than 24 hours.
Pornhub submitted just over 9,000 reports in 2021 of 30 million reports of child exploitation to NCMEC, with Mindgeek s other pornography websites submitting fewer than 100 reports combined.
Friedman said that Ethical Capital Partners plans to support and center sex workers and sexually explicit content creators in discussions about legislation and regulation, including what payment processors like Visa and Mastercard don't allow from sex workers and pornography websites.
Friedman said that we have seen the stigma and we have defended sex workers. There are discussions and debates happening in the absence of those who are most affected by the stigma and there is shame. The acquisition announcement has been greeted with optimism by adult stars and sex workers, said Mike Stabile, director of public affairs for the Free Speech Coalition, the adult industry trade association.
At a time when the industry is under incredible attack, it really helps to have one of the largest companies speak out, Stabile said.
Along with announcing its Mindgeek acquisition, Ethical Capital Partners also created an advisory board, which includes Dr. Val Webber, who holds a doctorate in community health and humanities. Webber hopes to reinforce the safety and health of performers and sex workers by taking experience in the webcamming industry.
Webber said that my goal will always be to be that performer safety is never sacrificed for some other vision of safety. It relates to sexual health but also mental health in being constantly surveilled and constantly having your livelihood stripped away.