The new owner of Pornhub told AFP that instead of cracking down on porn websites, governments should take pleasure in sexual expression and work to normalise and make porn “boring”.
A brief about In the words of Pornhub’s new owner, “governments should help make porn normal, boring”
Three months ago, the parent company of Pornhub, MindGeek, was acquired by the Canadian private equity company Ethical Capital Partners, giving it control over a number of other websites, including YouPorn.
A sea of legal issues have also been brought up by the acquisition.
After being instructed to confirm the ages of visitors, its websites were removed from the US state of Utah in May.
Website owners and authorities in France have been negotiating for months on how to implement an age verification rule that will go into effect in 2020.
Two of MindGeek’s websites have no age verification in place and might be shut down by a court decision on July 7.
Solomon Friedman, the creator of ECP, stated in an interview with AFP that “We do not want any underage users on our websites at all.”
He disagreed with the notion that websites should bear the burden and demanded that operating systems come up with a fix.
“We are strongly in support of age verification solutions that do two things: effectively protect children and do not expose personal data,” he stated.
Device or browser-based authentication is the only approach that satisfies both objectives, he claimed, adding that it would be “a very simple step for Google and Apple.”
When the New York Times reported charges that MindGeek’s websites were posting material depicting rapes and sex with kids, the company found itself in deep water.
Following intense pressure from regulators in various nations in response to the report, Visa and MasterCard stopped processing payments.
The owners tried for two years to sell the company, which has its formal headquarters in Luxembourg and is mostly located in Canada but has a complicated corporate structure that spans several of the world’s tax havens.
The new owners, which also include two lawyers, an ex-police officer, and an Italian businessman who became wealthy through the legal cannabis industry, are eager to disassociate themselves from the accusations made by the New York Times.
According to Friedman, the business has undergone a significant transformation recently.
He bragged that eight million pieces of information had been removed in 2021, but AFP is unable to confirm this.
“A request for content removal automatically results in the content being removed,” he stated.
“We review it after removal,” was stated.
Additionally, uploaders had to give identity, copyright-protected content was filtered out by algorithms, and all content was reviewed by corporate workers before it was published online.
Solomon claimed that the initial purpose of bringing in his company was to ensure that MindGeek was operating legally.
In addition to being in compliance with the law, he added, “what we found was that it was an extraordinary investing opportunity, but it’s an opportunity that required specialised skills.”
Despite the fact that it has been a difficult test since then, ECP felt they possessed the skills and purchased the business.
Following an earlier conflict over Louisiana’s comparable age verification law, Utah withdrew.
Solomon claimed that despite slightly different restrictions in Louisiana, where they are not required to collect personal information, their websites are still accessible.
He stated that he did not want to predict any outcomes in France but that he could not completely rule out the potential that his sites would be forced to leave.
Since President Emmanuel Macron pledged to make preventing minors from viewing pornography a top priority during his campaign for reelection last year, the topic has moved up the political agenda.
Having called minors using pornographic websites a “scandal,” digital minister Jean-Noel Barrot has directly challenged ECP to outline how they will abide with the legislation.
Solomon asserted that his company was devoted to “talk openly and proudly about the porn industry” and that he had contacted Barrot’s office, promising to publish a report soon.
He stated, “I believe society has evolved to the point where we are proud of sexual expression.
“The fact that it’s adult will be boring, just like how boring (legal) marijuana in Canada has gotten.”
