Aylo, the parent company to adult content website Pornhub, agreed to be subject to an independent monitor for three years after an agreement was made in federal court on Thursday.
The company was arraigned on a charge of engaging in unlawful monetary transactions involving sex trafficking proceeds, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York.
“Motivated by profit, Aylo Holdings knowingly enriched itself by turning a blind eye to the concerns of victims who communicated to the company that they were deceived and coerced into participating in illicit sexual activity,” FBI Assistant Direct-in-Charge James Smith said. “Make no mistake, any entity that engages in sexual exploitation will be held to account for the mental anguish and terror imposed on victims. I hope today’s proceedings bring a sense of justice to the victims in this case as they move forward in their lives.”
Aylo, formerly known as MindGeek, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve the charge. In addition to being subject to three years monitoring, Aylo will be required to pay out $1,844,952.83 to the United States.
Starting in 2009, Aylo hosted videos from another pornography company. In front of a federal grand jury in the Southern District of California, the operators of that site were indicted on, “among other charges, sex trafficking offenses, for deceiving and coercing young women to appear in sex videos which were then posted online without the women’s consent,” the release stated. Several of the operators have since been convicted.
“According to Aylo’s admissions and court documents filed today, between 2017 and 2019, Aylo received money that Aylo knew or should have known was derived from ... sex trafficking operations,” the release stated.
The deferred prosecution agreement, obtained by the Deseret News, included examples of complainants’ submitted content removal requests to the platform.
One such example occurred in March 2019, when a complainant requested that Pornhub remove a ... video. “In the request, she stated that she ‘was told this video would never be online. I did not consent to have this on Pornhub! Please take this down. It is ruining my life,’” according to the deferred agreement.
The deferred prosecution agreementA stated that “Pornhub responded and stated that the ‘following video(s) was/were uploaded by one of our Content Partners as part of our Content Partner Program’ and directed the complainant to submit a DMCA takedown notice if she felt that the video violated copyright and wished to pursue the video removal.”
The three year monitoring of Aylo will assess how the company responds to requests to take videos off the platforms and to allegations of illegal content on the sites. The company will also be subject to evaluation on how it discloses the presence of illegal content to law enforcement authorities.
In the case that Aylo breaches the terms of the agreement, the company will be prosecuted for engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.
“This deferred prosecution agreement holds the parent company of Pornhub.com accountable for its role in hosting videos and accepting payments from criminal actors who coerced young women into engaging in sexual acts on videos that were posted without their consent,” stated U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
“This office is committed to ensuring internet safety and protecting people from online sexual exploitation. It is our hope that this resolution, which includes certain agreed payments to the women whose images were posted on the company’s platforms and an independent monitorship brings some measure of closure to those negatively affected,” Peace continued. “This resolution will not only provide oversight over one of the largest online content distributors in the world and ensure the company’s lawful behavior, but it will also develop industry-wide standards for safety and compliance.”