A DOJ-approved monitor begins policing how Pornhub screens for illegal videos, including potential sexual abuse
- A Toronto-based law firm began a 3-year independent monitorship of Pornhub's parent company Friday.
- The monitorship is part of a deferred-prosecution agreement Pornhub's owners agreed to in December.
A Toronto-based law firm has begun a three-year independent monitorship of Pornhub and its parent company, Aylo Holdings.
Department of Justice approval of Henein Hutchinson Robitaille LLP was revealed Friday in a letter to US District Judge Brian M. Cogan, who will oversee the monitorship.
The firm will review how Aylo responds to takedown requests and screens for illegal content — including child-sexual-abuse images and non-consensual videos of sexual assault and trafficking — on its flagship website Pornhub and such sister sites as YouPorn and RedTube.
The monitorship is part of a deferred prosecution agreement between Aylo and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, who charged the company with money laundering in December.
As part of that agreement, Aylo — formerly MindGeek— admitted profiting from videos produced by the sex trafficking ring Girls Do Porn. In addition to agreeing to independent monitoring, Aylo officials paid a $1.8 million fine and agreed to undisclosed additional payments to victims whose images appeared on the company's platforms.
To date, five Girls Do Porn employees have pleaded guilty in San Diego to federal sex trafficking charges. Accused Girls Do Porn mastermind Michael James Pratt was extradited to California from Spain in March. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a possible trial.
Aylo is owned by the Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. Two firm officials, partner Solomon Friedman and spokeswoman Sarah Bain, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bain has previously told Business Insider that Aylo has taken significant steps to keep illegal content off the site, including through increased human monitoring and the use of AI technologies that can identify possible child-sexual-abuse images.
A spokesperson for the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn declined to comment on the monitorship.