Pornhub which is currently owned by a company called MindGeek has lost two of its high-level executives, CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Tassillio. They have resigned after a report was published in The New Yorker, addressing the company’s inability to verify underage and non-consenting contents.
MindGeek is a company located in Montreal, headquartered in Luxembourg employs around six hundred people. The company owns several online platforms which include Pornhub, RedTube, YouPorn, and Brazzers. The online platforms are being visited by approximately 4.5 billion users each month according to a report published in 2020.
Reportedly, PornHub has been accused of uploading non-consensual underage content without any verification. The magazine named the New Yorker has taken personal interviews of several women discovering videos and pictures of themselves on Pornhub without their consent.
Subsequently, MindGeek has denied the claims that came from the magazine. In regard to this incident, one spokesperson told the Washington Post, “[The New Yorker] 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 mischaracterizations that anti-porn extremists have spewed for decades.”
A lawsuit was filed in 2021 against MindGeek for violating the federal laws of sex trafficking and child sexual abuse by allowing the streaming of pictures, videos, and images of the same on their platform. However, MindGeek has denied the allegation.
According to a source, a spokesperson stated that MindGeek has been planning to bring reform to their leadership roles. The sudden resignation of executives might be due to the reform policy. However, both the executives Antoon and Tassillo said that they will remain company shareholders and are currently looking for their replacements.
