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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="12374906" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mindgeek" source="Orion">MindGeek</keyword> CEO <keyword id="14262680" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="feras-antoon" source="Orion">Feras Antoon</keyword> and COO <keyword id="14262681" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="david-tassillo" source="Orion">David Tassillo</keyword> have resigned, Variety first reported.</li><li>Mindgeek owns a collection of <keyword id="11898869" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="porn" source="Orion">porn</keyword> sites including <keyword id="11897492" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pornhub" source="Orion">Pornhub</keyword>, Redtube, YouPorn.</li></ul>Pornhub's parent company MindGeek just lost two of its top executives.MindGeek CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Tassillo have both resigned, as first reported by <a href="https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/pornhub-ceo-coo-resign-1235299691/">Variety</a> and confirmed to Insider by a MindGeek spokesperson.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bernard-bergemar-owns-mindgeek-pornhub-redtube-youporn-ft-2020-12">MindGeek</a> owns various porn sites including Pornhub, Redtube, and YouPorn."Antoon and Tassillo leave MindGeek's day-to-day operations after more than a decade in leadership positions with the company," a MindGeek spokesperson told Insider.The spokesperson said the company is looking for replacements, and in the meantime the executive team will run operations.Numerous outlets including Variety noted the resignations came the week after <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/20/the-fight-to-hold-pornhub-accountable">The New Yorker</a> published a report on nonconsensual and underage material ending up on Pornhub.MindGeek's spokesperson denied the timing of Antoon and Tassillo's departures was linked to the article in a statement to Insider, and said their resignations have been in the works since early this year."The New Yorker had the opportunity to seriously evaluate what works in fighting illegal material on the internet by looking at the facts, comparing the policies of platforms, and studying the results," the spokesperson told Insider."Instead, they 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," the spokesperson added.MindGeek has seen bad press before. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/sunday/pornhub-rape-trafficking.html?searchResultPosition=1">The New York Times</a> published a column in December 2020 about underage content on Pornhub.In June 2021 a group of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pornhub-mindgeek-sued-by-34-women-alleged-trafficking-videos-2021-6?r=US&amp;IR=T">34 women filed a civil case against MindGeek</a> accusing it of profiting from videos of them that were posted to Pornhub without their consent. Out of the 34 plaintiffs 14 said they'd been the victims of underage sex trafficking.Antoon's name appeared in the press in April 2021 after a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/will-the-pornhub-mansion-fire-ever-be-solved-2022-4?r=US&amp;IR=T">$16 million Montreal mansion he owned caught fire</a>. Investigators said the fire was the result of arson, but no one has been arrested or charged in conjunction with the fire.

The CEO and COO of Pornhub's parent company have both resigned

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="1607136" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Pornhub">Pornhub</keyword> founder Feras Antoon's $20 million <keyword id="108066" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="mansion">mansion</keyword> went up in flames on Sunday evening.</li><li><keyword id="11098" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="police">Police</keyword> told VICE they were alerted after two people were spotted on the property.</li><li>More than 80 <keyword id="28762" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="fire">fire</keyword>fighters spent three hours putting the fire out. The <keyword id="105434" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="arson">arson</keyword> squad is investigating.</li></ul>Police are investigating an apparent arson attack after a multi million-dollar mansion owned by Pornhub founder Feras Antoon went up in flames on Sunday evening.The property, in <keyword id="82818" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Montreal">Montreal</keyword>'s Ahuntsic-Cartierville neighbourhood, was under construction and was <a href="https://www.royallepage.ca/en/property/quebec/montreal-ahuntsic-cartierville/8207-av-jean-bourdon/14880093/mls11303538/">listed</a> for sale at nearly $20 million. Antoon is the CEO of Mindgeek, Pornhub's parent company. A spokesperson for Montreal Police told <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/akgdvk/police-investigating-arson-after-pornhub-ceos-mansion-goes-up-in-flames">VICE</a> that officers were called to the mansion at 11:30 p.m. after two people were spotted on the property. When the police arrived, the mansion was up in flames.Stéphane Grégoire, cameraman for Radio-Canada, captured photos of the blazing fire on Sunday evening.It took more than 80 firefighters three hours to get the fire under control, according to the spokesperson. No one was hurt but neighbours were forced to evacuate, they added. The spokesperson also said police officers identified that the fire began inside the mansion.The arson squad are taking charge of the <keyword id="49112" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Investigation">investigation</keyword>.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-pornhub-parent-company-mindgeeks-moderation-process-2020-12">Former Pornhub moderators describe lax rules while being ordered to watch up to 1,200 videos per day: 'Our job was to find weird excuses to keep videos on our sites'</a>"Over the weekend, a fire occurred at my residence," Antoon told VICE in a statement. "The residence was under construction. I am grateful that my family and I and our neighbours are safe. Out of respect for the ongoing police investigation, I will not be commenting further."The mansion, covering 61,000 square feet, is still under construction. It was planned to have 21 rooms, including eight bedrooms and seven bathrooms, and nine garages, according to the listing.It would also have a "Multi Sport Complex" for basketball, volleyball and badminton which could also turn into a ballroom for events, the listing said.

Pornhub founder Feras Antoon's $20 million Montreal mansion went up in flames after a suspected arson attack

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The private equity firm that acquired Pornhub's parent company won't reveal who's running MindGeek.</li><li>Ethical Capital Partners told the Financial Times it won't yet identify MindGeek's executives.</li></ul>The new owner of Pornhub's parent company says it won't yet reveal the names of the executives running Mindgeek because there's "unfortunate stigma" associated with the porn industry. Ethical Capital Partners, a Canadian private equity firm set up last year, announced its <a href="https://www.ethicalcapitalpartners.com/news/ecp-announces-acquisition-of-mindgeek%2C-parent-company-of-pornhub" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquisition</a> of MindGeek Thursday for an undisclosed sum. It also owns sites including YouPorn, Redtube and Brazzers as well as Pornhub, one of the world's most-visited websites.ECP told the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/69c3295e-6f45-4b5f-8e7b-3b8d56ca46c8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Financial Times</a> it wanted to be transparent as the company's new owners. Solomon Friedman, an ECP partner, said: "I want to engage regularly with stakeholders, including the media."However, he added that "at this point we are not identifying the current executives, as there is an unfortunate stigma" associated with the porn industry. Friedman is a <a href="https://www.ethicalcapitalpartners.com/solomon-friedman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criminal defense lawyer</a> and law professor at ECP, which was founded by Rocco Meliambro, the creator of <a href="https://www.ethicalcapitalpartners.com/rocco-meliambro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one of Canada's biggest</a> cannabis retailers.The fund laid out its plans for MindGeek in a <a href="https://www.ethicalcapitalpartners.com/news/ecp-announces-acquisition-of-mindgeek%2C-parent-company-of-pornhub" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. It said it will adopt new online safety measures to increase trust and safety and invest to "help fight illegal online content."MindGeek was previously controlled by a former banker named Bernd Bergmair, while David Tassillo and <a href="https://www.tortoisemedia.com/audio/hunt-for-the-porn-king/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Syrian-Canadian programmer</a> Feras Antoon also held stakes. Antoon and Tassillo <a href="https://www.xbiz.com/news/257174/pornhub-releases-statement-about-content-moderation-changes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined Pornhub</a> in 2008 and spent more than a decade running the company before they <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ceo-coo-mindgeek-pornhub-parent-company-resign-2022-6?r=US&amp;IR=T">resigned</a> as CEO and COO of MindGeek in June 2022, but <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/pornhub-owner-mindgeek-ceo-coo-resign-2022-06-21/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remained shareholders</a>.The acquisition was announced the day after Netflix released a documentary titled <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81406118" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Money Shot: The Pornhub Story"</a>. It examines the dark side of the platform as well as the censorship of sex workers. It details how a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/sunday/pornhub-rape-trafficking.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times op-ed</a> in December 2020 that accused Pornhub of hosting child porn sparked public outrage. About six months later 34 women <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pornhub-mindgeek-sued-by-34-women-alleged-trafficking-videos-2021-6?r=US&amp;IR=T">sued the company</a> and accused it of profiting from trafficked videos of them.The allegations spurred an investigation by Visa and Mastercard, which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mastercard-visa-pornhub-cut-off-payments2020-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">temporarily cut off Pornhub</a> from its payment services in the same month.Antoon and Tassillo were summoned to give evidence to a Canadian parliamentary committee in February 2021 as MindGeek is largely run from Montreal.<a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mindgeek-executives-testify-before-ethics-committee-over-allegations-of-illegal-content-on-pornhub-1.5296887?cache=uhposhkob%2F7.308453" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CTV News reported</a> that Tassillo told the hearing: "I truly believe, in my heart of hearts, that we are the safest adult platform in the world right now."ECP didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

The fund that just bought Pornhub owner MindGeek won't say who's running the company due to 'unfortunate stigma,' report says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mindgeek CEO and <keyword id="11897492" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pornhub" source="Orion">Pornhub</keyword> co-owner Feras Antoon gave an interview for the first time in more than a decade.</li><li>Antoon spoke with Vanity Fair about the fire that destroyed his $16 million mansion in April 2021.</li></ul>Pornhub's elusive co-owner, in his first interview in more than a decade, said he suspects anti-porn critics may have incited violence that led to his sprawling $16 million mansion burning to the ground last spring.In 2016, Feras Antoon, the Syrian-Canadian CEO of Pornhub's parent company Mindgeek, purchased two lots of land next to a nature reserve in Montreal for $1.8 million USD, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9065503/Pornhub-founder-Feras-Antoon-building-massive-mansion-Montreal-nature-reserve.html">The Daily Mail reported</a>. He spent the subsequent years building his 21-room mansion, complete with a nine-car garage and a 6,000 square foot ballroom, per Vanity Fair.Days after placing the house on the market for $16 million on April 22, 2021, surveillance footage showed two trespassers on his property before the mansion burned to the ground, Feras told <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/01/xxx-files-who-torched-the-pornhub-palace?campaign_id=4&amp;emc=edit_dk_20220119&amp;instance_id=50679&amp;nl=dealbook&amp;regi_id=84864966&amp;segment_id=80088&amp;te=1&amp;user_id=fc3ab6d8555d7e14ad8ee93c51be2197">Vanity Fair's Adam Gollner</a>. The fire did not cause any injuries and nearby buildings were not damaged.Antoon told Vanity Fair he suspects one of Pornhub's many critics was behind the attack. "Could the extreme religious groups have incited and encouraged someone to do this? Absolutely," he said. "When you use extremist language and QAnon sentiment toward child trafficking, your words are going to attract and mobilize some of the darkest corners of the internet."The fire happened shortly after Pornhub released its <a href="https://help.pornhub.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260803955549-Transparency-Report">first transparency report</a> which said the firm identified more than 600,000 pieces of content that potentially violated its terms of service.Earlier, in December 2020, the company had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pornhub-visa-mastercard-major-changes-platform-rules-revenge-porn-2020-12">made major changes</a> to the way it moderates content on the platform following a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/sunday/pornhub-rape-trafficking.html">New York Times op-ed written by Nicholas Kristof</a> that alleged the company was hosting videos of nonconsensual sex and sex trafficking victims, including children.The site told Insider in a statement at the time that "any assertion that we allow CSAM (child sexual abuse material) is irresponsible and flagrantly untrue." It purged all <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pornhub-purges-millions-unverified-videos-amid-child-pornography-allegations-2020-12">unverified videos</a> from the site, but not before <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mastercard-visa-pornhub-cut-off-payments2020-12">Visa and Mastercard</a> ended their relationships with Pornhub."I can't even count how many comments I saw from people saying to burn the company or my house down," Antoon said. "For a while, it was easy to dismiss the tweets as just people on the internet talking. Then my house burned down." Sex workers have said some changes the company made in 2020 came at their expense. Verified entertainers could no longer get paid through two of the country's largest credit card companies after Visa and Mastercard cut ties with Pornhub, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7v33d/sex-workers-what-visa-and-mastercard-dropping-pornhub-means-to-performers">Vice's Samantha Cole reported</a>."Any suggestion that we allow or encourage illegal content is completely untrue and defies rational reason, from both a moral and business standpoint," Antoon told Vanity Fair.Online platforms like Pornhub and OnlyFans were vital for sex workers during the pandemic, when strip clubs shut down. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/onlyfans-porn-ban-sex-workers-creators-statement-2021-8">OnlyFans</a> faced backlash last year after booting (and later un-booting) adult entertainers from the platform.Got a tip? Contact Business Insider reporter Allana Akhtar via email (aakhtar@insider.com), or Twitter DM (<a href="https://twitter.com/allanaakh">@allanaakh</a>). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only.

Pornhub's elusive co-owner broke a decade-long media silence after his $16 million mansion burned to the ground

<ul class="summary-list"><li>On April 25, 2021, a $16 million Montreal mansion belonging to the CEO of <keyword id="11897492" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pornhub" source="Orion">Pornhub</keyword> went up in flames.</li><li>The fire remains under investigation, and no one has been charged. </li></ul>Last April 25, just before midnight, beneath a nearly full moon, two figures were spotted on the construction site of a massive, nearly-completed mansion on the edge of a suburban Montreal nature park.The hulking structure, two grinding years of construction in the making, was so large that a local newspaper called it "pharaonic." Plans called for eight bedrooms, seven baths, multiple elevators, a piano suite, an art gallery, a spa, and a sports complex that doubled as a grand ballroom.In minutes, the mansion was ablaze. Neighboring homes in the affluent Ahuntsic-Cartierville community were evacuated, their occupants hustled away in pajamas. Eighty firefighters battled the three-alarm blaze well into dawn. Investigators quickly determined the fire's source and within hours the incident was designated a criminal arson, according to a Montreal Police spokesperson. A year later, no one has been charged, and investigators say, in all likelihood, that no one ever will be. ("The investigation into this criminal arson is still ongoing," a spokesman said last week.) Fingers have been pointed in all directions and nearly every element of the crime remains shrouded in mystery. One reason for this comes down to the dizzying array of possible motives. That's because the mansion's owner, Feras Antoon, the CEO of Pornhub, was one of the most despised men in <keyword id="6356687" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="canada" source="Orion">Canada</keyword>, and beyond. Complicating things further is the fact that arson is a notoriously difficult crime to prosecute: because fire often destroys the evidence necessary to prove an ignition source and tie a suspect to the crime. Between 2016 and 2020, only<a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510017701&amp;pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.1&amp;pickMembers%5B1%5D=2.84&amp;cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2016&amp;cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2020&amp;referencePeriods=20160101%2C20200101"> 10.1%</a> of arson investigations in Canada resulted in arrests, according to government statistics. "At the end of the day, this is one of the easiest crimes you can commit," said Glenn Corbett, associate professor of fire science at John Jay College in New York. <h2>Sudden scrutiny </h2>At the time of the fire, Antoon—who co-founded Pornhub's parent company, Mindgeek, in 2007—was tumbling through a bruising season of public relations disasters, investigations, lawsuits, and death threats. "I can't even count how many comments I saw from people saying to burn the company or my house down,"Antoon told Vanity Fair earlier this year. "For a while, it was easy to dismiss the tweets as just people on the <keyword id="11897865" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="internet" source="Orion">internet</keyword> talking. Then my house burned down."For nearly two years, victims of child <keyword id="11898869" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="porn" source="Orion">porn</keyword>, revenge porn, rape and <keyword id="11897683" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sexual-assault" source="Orion">sexual assault</keyword> had been coming forward to say that Pornhub had ruined their lives. Many described the same harrowing one-two punch: First, learning that their sexual assault (or in some cases their private, consensual sexual encounters) was streaming on Pornhub. Then, being repeatedly ignored or rebuffed when they demanded the videos be taken down. Months of social media campaigns, <keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">news</keyword> probes, and civil lawsuits against Pornhub had reached a fever pitch by December 2020, when New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/sunday/pornhub-rape-trafficking.html?searchResultPosition=1">columnist</a> Nicholas Kristof published a scathing portrait of the company. Kristof charged that Pornhub was "infested with rape videos [and] monetizes child rape, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags." In a statement released in response to the Kristof's reporting, the company said that "Pornhub is unequivocally committed to combating child <keyword id="11910913" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sexual-abuse" source="Orion">sexual abuse</keyword> material, and has instituted a comprehensive, industry-leading trust and safety policy to identify and eradicate illegal material from our community." The company added that any assertion that the company allows child videos on the site "is irresponsible and flagrantly untrue."<div type="image" title="A firefighter is seen from the back and facing a large burning house." height="798" width="1428" msid="91084142" hostid="261"></div>Mastercard, Visa and Discover all cut ties, and under enormous public pressure, Pornhub deleted all non-verified user-uploaded content—80% of its library. It also promised it had significantly improved its<a href="https://help.pornhub.com/hc/en-us/categories/360002934613"> auditing and moderation</a> software and staffing levels. (Pornhub no longer allows unverified users to upload X-rated content, according to company news releases.) In February 2021, Antoon and Pornhub's COO were summoned to testify before the <keyword id="13383673" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="canadian" source="Orion">Canadian</keyword> House of Commons' ethics committee, part of five months of hearings into the business practices of Pornhub and its parent company, MindGeek.For all Antoon's notoriety and wealth—he<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-mindgeeks-business-practices-under-srutiny-as-political-pressure/"> reportedly</a> tools around Montreal in a bright yellow Lamborghini with vanity plates—the controversial porn king has gone to great lengths to protect his own privacy. He rarely speaks in public, instead communicating through press releases. The hearings marked the first time many longtime critics of Pornhub had ever seen Antoon's face. "We are very proud that we built a product that gets 170 million people visiting a day, four million Canadians, 30% of them women," Antoon <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/ETHI/meeting-19/evidence">said</a>, referring to Pornhub. "Don't you believe if those four million Canadians who come to our site every day saw something so heinous and criminal, they would be calling the police?" Antoon <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/ETHI/meeting-19/evidence">continued</a>, according to a transcript of his testimony. "We created a very good product that I and our 1,800 employees who have families and children are proud of. It is not perfect."Two weeks before the fire, with the Pornhub hearings dominating Canadian headlines, Vice published a piece focused on far-right extremists' calls on alt social platforms like Gab for violence against company executives. The piece was headlined, "The Crusade Against Pornhub is Going to Get Somebody Killed."On April 22—three days before the fire—the mansion went up for sale for close to $16 million.Repeated attempts to reach Antoon and other Pornhub executives through Pornhub's public relations liaisons were unsuccessful. A company official who identified himself only as Ian and used a Gmail account did not respond to written questions about the fire or claims made about the company. <h2>A 'Tube' site revolution</h2>But where did Pornhub come from, and why was it so loved but also so hated? Almost immediately after YouTube debuted in 2005, a flurry of knock-offs—then known as "Tube" sites—began popping up. Along with a few friends, Antoon and a few college friends at Montreal's Concordia University launched a series of X-rated Tube sites that encouraged users to upload and share videos. "Suddenly porn went from being something people would happily pay an inflated price for to something that people would not pay anything for," said Lux Alptraum, a veteran writer and podcaster on the porn industry. As the deluge of pirated porn flooded to Pornhub and other Tube sites, traditional porn sites saw their revenue streams dry up. Once they began to fail, MindGeek eventually became the dominant player, Alptraum said. Pornhub, the most successful of the Tube sites, became the crown jewel. "It cannot be stressed enough that these [other tube] sites were built on pirated content," Alptraum said. "It wasn't that they were creating their own content or relying on amateur content. They were allowing users to steal content from other sites and upload it."<div type="image" title="A hand is seen holding a phone, which shows the logo of the company Pornhub." height="3264" width="4896" msid="91084143" hostid="261"></div>While critics contend that Antoon and fellow MindGeek executives built their empire on aggressive tactics, they were also seen, even grudgingly by some, as innovators. In 2019, a pair of prominent U.S. law professors published a paper in the New York University Law Review contending that MindGeek was on "the leading edge of data-driven creativity," and had grown more adept at data crunching and fine-tuning user experience algorithms than even Netflix.<h2>'Sick to my stomach'</h2>Around the time construction began on Antoon's mansion in 2018, strange things had begun happening to Vicky Galy, a 34-year-old paralegal more than 11,000 miles away in Hendersonville, Tennessee.People she met on the street would insist they knew her from somewhere, but from precisely where they could never recall. Strange men sat in parked cars outside her home. A new male friend on Facebook made sudden, indiscreet sexual overtures.A single mom raising a teenage son and a daughter with Down syndrome, Galy said she had made some bad decisions regarding men she met online. One of them, she said, would often record their sexual encounters, with or without her consent."There were three kinds of videos he made of me," she recalled with a sigh when we spoke. "At first, he would pull out his phone on me" during sexual encounters. "The second kind were hidden camera video during our consensual sex. The third kind were made on a trip to Vegas where I was either drugged or intoxicated." As she would later <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/ETHI/meeting-20/evidence">testify</a> in February, during the Pornhub hearings, Galy told me she was floored one day to learn that at least 30 of those videos were circulating on Pornhub under some variation of her name "Vicky." (Galy was one of numerous Pornhub victims who <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/ETHI/meeting-20/evidence">testified</a> before Canadian lawmakers earlier this year.) "To think of the amount of money that Pornhub has made off my trauma, date rape and sexual exploitation," Galy <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/ETHI/meeting-20/evidence">told lawmakers</a>, "makes me sick to my stomach."Another was Serena Fleites, who brought several lawmakers to tears when she told them about how she had developed a crush on an older boy in eighth grade and how he begged her to send him a nude video of herself and she ultimately complied, only to learn the boy had uploaded it to Pornhub and shared it with his classmates.Victim testimony from Fleites, Galy and several women identified as "Jane Does" directly contradicted Pornhub executives' claims that the site responds swiftly to takedown requests and works diligently to remove child pornography. For some victims, like Galy, feelings of frustration and embarrassment were compounded by outrage upon learning that both her alleged abuser and Pornhub were profiting from the scheme. She said she went to the police, but that they didn't believe her. She contacted local law firms to help her sue, but each wanted a $10,000 retainer, she said, and besides, she said, "no one wanted to sue him because he was worth nothing anyway." She cut five inches from her hair and dyed it brown so she wouldn't look like the woman people recognized from the Pornhub videos, took a leave of absence from work, and she and her children moved in with her mother. 'Not having people believe me was the hardest part of this whole thing," she said. "I had a sergeant tell me, 'I'm not going to have my detectives sit and watch porn all day.'"Galy was also contacting Pornhub's legal department to get the videos taken down. "They mostly ignored me, and then kept insisting it wasn't me," she said. Two days before the Canadian hearings began, Galy said, she received an email from Pornhub's legal director saying they would delete the account."That was the happiest day of my life," Galy said. "I didn't know then that there were hundreds more videos on other sites. With some of them there's not even a way to report [an unauthorized] video like this, so I'll really never be able to get these videos down completely." <div type="image" title="A masked man, face obscured, holds up a sign that reads &quot;Free Pornhub&quot;" height="3008" width="4512" msid="91084144" hostid="261"></div><h2>Mafia Row</h2>During the same two years leading up to the hearings, Antoon had been quietly overseeing the construction of a massive mansion for himself and his wife and two children on a prime tract of land that bordered a cherished nature park. According to Vanity Fair, the property was within walking distance from where Antoon grew up. Located on the northern edge of Montreal, the spot had a fraught history even before Antoon became involved—first as the site of a notorious Gangland assassination, and then as a front line between environmentalists and developers. The Mafia had moved into the neighborhood in the 1970s. Antoine Berthelet Avenue, the road just behind where Antoon would later build his mansion, became known as "Mafia Row." It was there that the Sicilian crime family led by Nicolo Rizzuto would run their operations for the next few decades. On November 10, 2010, an assassin crept onto what would later be Antoon's property, and fired a single shot through the double-reinforced pane glass windows of Nicolo Rizzuto's solarium, killing Rizzuto in his kitchen, according to mob author Peter Edwards. "This was an extremely good sniper shot," Edwards said, noting that investigators long-suspected the triggerman to be Calabrian soldier Salvatore Calautti, who himself was assassinated in 2013.The fatal shot effectively ended the Rizzuto family's three-decade long reign. (The hit series 'Bad Blood' was based on a book about Rizzuto's son and successor, Vito Rizzuto.)The assassination, like the arson fire, remains unsolved to this day—though a source told Insider that while Montreal Police are exploring theories related to Pornhub and Antoon's spectrum of critics, Mafia involvement is not suspected. <h2>An 'eco-corridor' vs. a development </h2>Four years after Rizzuto's shooting, a different kind of war broke out on the same spot over a plan to clear 200 trees on the border of the Bois-de-Saraguay nature park.The community had been trying to create an "eco-corridor" between the river and Bois de Saraguay nature park so that boaters could dock on the riverside and then hike through trails to the nature park. While the park itself was protected from development as a national heritage site, sections of the border woodlands remained in private hands. The local government didn't have the funding to purchase and preserve the land, according to Simon Van Vliet, a reporter for Ahuntsic-Cartierville's Neighborhood Journal newspaper, which produced a<a href="https://journaldesvoisins.com/?s=Feras+Antoon"> three-part series</a> on the controversy during the months leading up to the arson fire. <div type="image" title="Lush greenery is seen along a narrow residential alley." height="3024" width="4032" msid="91084145" hostid="261"></div>Local property owner Francesco Lapara had other plans – to cut down the trees and subdivide his land into residential lots. Van Vliet said local officials repeatedly rejected Lapara's development applications, but he went to court and won. Antoon and his sister, Dana Antoon, a local real estate agent, purchased all four lots, according to Van Vliet's reporting. Construction began in 2018. Reached by Business Insider, Dana Antoon declined any comment on the land deals. Van Vliet described Antoon's compound as a "castle" among mansions."People were just kind of baffled by the lavishness of the place, and obviously upset about the ecological loss and the setback to the project of building this eco corridor." Jacques LeBlue, a spokesman for Environmental Mobilization Ahuntsic-Cartierville which fought the clearing of trees on Antoon's property, seemed to echo this frustration when he said "the subject of Mr. Antoon has been a tragicomic distraction from our core activities, every time his name gets associated with ours. This only got worse with the fire." LeBleu declined further comment.Sylvia Oljemark, 81, a neighborhood resident since her birth, said local residents watched in disbelief as the structure rose up over the neighborhood."It was enormous," she said. "Enormous.""To think [local officials] could permit somebody to purchase land and build a huge structure [and] take down all the trees," she said, "it was personally reprehensible to me."<h2>No resolution </h2>The hearings neither shut Pornhub down nor rehabilitated the public image of Antoon and Pornhub COO David Tassillo, who also testified. Arnold Viersen, a conservative MP from Alberta, said the executives' defense, which he saw as "Hey, we're just doing business here, we're just making money," was "very frustrating to us as members of Parliament.""The Canadian public was outraged at the smugness," he said. Viersen said that he has been investigating <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=allePSwZmko">Pornhub</a> for five years, and noted that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were equally frustrated in questioning Pornhub executives during the hearing. "It's a fairly non-partisan thing," he said. "While [Liberal MP] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3yszvkMSPs">Charlie Angus</a> and I don't agree on much we were both fighting on the same side of the war."Personally, Viersen said he was "incredulous that the fire happened to come in the middle of the ethics committee hearings." "I've just got a feeling it's just a masterful sympathy play," he said, though he offered no evidence that Antoon, or anyone Angus has knowledge of, had a hand in torching the mansion. "That's my intuition on it, given what I know about them. They are very good at changing people's perceptions." Last week, a Toronto personal injury law firm <a href="https://www.blogto.com/city/2022/04/toronto-law-firm-500-million-lawsuit-pornhub/">announced</a> it had filed a $500 million class action lawsuit against Pornhub.

Will the Pornhub mansion fire ever be solved?

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of the Insider Tech <keyword id="621414" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Newsletter">newsletter</keyword>, where we break down the biggest news in tech, including:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/googles-resistance-to-going-fully-remote-is-frustrating-employees-2021-4">Google employees fight for the right to work from home</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-eu-antitrust-law-charged-anticompetitive-app-store-practices-eu-2021-4">Apple App Store model is under attack</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/etsy-sells-ivory-weapons-poisonous-plants-mass-produced-products-2021-4">How Etsy's marketplace became a free-for-all of listings for dead pets, radioactive material and weapons</a></li></ul><h4><a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-tech">Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.</a></h4>Soundtrack: This week's newsletter has been specially designed to be consumed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3WBWy1Rf94">while listening to the Beastie Boys' "Car Thief"</a><h3>This week: Googlers fight for their right to WFH</h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-walkout-17000-google-employees-protested-sexual-misconduct-2018-11"></a>We've seen tech worker revolts about everything from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-mailchimp-mass-exodus-women-people-color-ben-chestnut-2021-3">toxic corporate cultures</a> to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-walkout-17000-google-employees-protested-sexual-misconduct-2018-11">sexual misconduct</a> to workplace <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/basecamp-employees-object-online-ban-political-discussions-2021-4">clampdowns on political speech</a>. Now, some <keyword id="6355629" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="google">Google</keyword> employees are up in arms about a new hot-button issue: <keyword id="1591611" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="remote-work">remote work</keyword>. Google employees are due back in the office in September, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/googles-resistance-to-going-fully-remote-is-frustrating-employees-2021-4">and many are not happy about it</a>. Some are even threatening to quit if they're not allowed to permanently work from home, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/googles-resistance-to-going-fully-remote-is-frustrating-employees-2021-4">as Hugh Langley reports:</a>While tech firms such as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-employess-to-work-from-home-permanently-2020-10">Microsoft</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-tells-employees-they-can-work-from-home-permanently-2020-5">Twitter</a> have announced plans to allow employees to work from home permanently, Google has resisted going fully remote, and employees said there's an increasing sense of frustration among a faction of the workforce.Over the past few months, CEO Sundar Pichai <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-office-future-employee-on-sites-sundar-pichai-2020-9">has made other hints</a> that Google is considering a flexible setup when employees return. Since then, questions about remote work have been continually put to leadership, said employees and internal materials viewed by Insider."Almost every TGIF or area all-hands, the question gets asked," one employee said.It's an interesting turn of events for a company so instrumental in creating Silicon Valley's cushy workplace trend, where campuses brim with free-to-eat restaurants, laundry service, volleyball courts and massage therapists. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/googles-resistance-to-going-fully-remote-is-frustrating-employees-2021-4"><div type="image" title="Sundar Pichai" height="1333" width="2000" msid="82344740" hostid="261"></div></a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alphabet-google-earnings-q1-2021-revenue-eps-profit-analysis-2021-4">As we learned in Google's blowout Q1 results,</a> having employees work from home saves a lot of money. Google reduced its spending on travel, entertainment and other expenses by $268 million in Q1 as a result of COVID-19. And while Google's interactions with employees about the future workplace has been bumpy, the company is apparently on the ball when it comes to the technical aspects of a hybrid workforce.<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-hot-desk-remembers-workers-preferences-2021-4">A special "hot desk" prototype created by Google will remember each user's individual preferences</a>, automatically adjusting things like desk height, monitor tilt, temperature - even the family photos displayed on the Nest Hub device will adjust to whoever the occupant is on any given day. </li></ul>Remote workers of the world, unite ... or be shackled to Google's customizable hot desk. <h3>Read Hugh's full story here:</h3><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/googles-resistance-to-going-fully-remote-is-frustrating-employees-2021-4">Google's push to bring employees back to offices in September is frustrating some employees who say they'll quit if they can't be remote forever</a></h3><h2><keyword id="6354427" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="apple">Apple</keyword>'s Spring sprint</h2><div type="image" title="Tim Cook" height="1615" width="2093" msid="82344742" hostid="261"></div>It's been a busy and eventful couple of weeks for Apple - and things aren't likely to slow down anytime soon.<ul><li>This week, Apple reported <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/apple-stock-price-2q-earnings-reactions-analyst-price-targets-upgrades-2021-4-1030365759">quarterly earnings that crushed Wall Street expectations</a> thanks to booming iPhone and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-mac-best-quarters-ever-tim-cook-2021-4">Mac sales. </a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-new-suggested-app-ad-format-details-revealed-2021-4?inline-read-more">Apple also officially threw down the gauntlet at Facebook this week</a>, with the release of iOS 14.5 and its famous anti-tracking feature.</li><li>The week before that, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-event-april-2021-colorful-imac-new-ipad-pro-airtags-2021-4">Apple unveiled a new line up of devices</a>, including its long-awaited <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-airtags-how-to-buy">AirtTag</a> devices, as well as new iPads.</li></ul>But the main event kicks off this coming week, when the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-apple-google-sued-fortnite-epic-games-antitrust-explained-2020-8">antitrust trial between Apple and "Fortnite"-maker Epic Games</a> kicks off over Apple's App Store policies, particularly the 15% to 30% cut that Apple takes from sales on its platform.<ul><li>The trial begins Monday in federal court in Oakland, CA. Among the people expected to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-tim-cook-epic-games-ceo-testify-fortnite-court-case-2021-3">take the stand are Apple CEO Tim Cook</a>, software boss Craig Federighi (also known as Hair Force One) and Epic CEO Tim Sweeney.</li><li>The stakes are high for Apple, which could potentially lose at least some of its control over the closed iPhone platform, as well as for the broader tech landscape, where the power of platforms from Google to Amazon are being questioned.</li><li>Indeed, Epic's case against Apple got an extra boost on Friday when the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-eu-antitrust-law-charged-anticompetitive-app-store-practices-eu-2021-4">European Commission issued a preliminary ruling that Apple's conduct in music</a> streaming business - Apple operates its own Apple Music service and manages the App Store platform that competitors like Spotify must use - is an unfair competitive advantage. </li></ul><h3>From the curiosities file...</h3>Camouflage a la Zuck: Remember the photo that went viral this summer of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-mark-zuckerberg-surfing-with-tons-of-sunscreen-memes-2020-7">Mark Zuckerberg riding an electric surfboard</a> with his face covered in white sunscreen? Well, now we know the story behind the photo. Zuck <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-sunscreen-surfing-photo-hide-from-paparazzi-facebook2021-4">purposefully - and it seems misguidedly - smeared the sunscreen all over his face in an effort to throw off a nearby paparazzi</a>.Too hot to handle: It took 80 firefighters more than three hours to control <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pornhub-ceo-feras-antoon-mansion-in-flames-after-arson-attack-2021-4">a blaze at the Montreal home of Pornhub founder Feras Antoon</a>. The home was under construction and no one was injured, but authorities suspect arson. Two people were seen on the $20 million property shortly before the blaze.<h2><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/elon-musk-ai-vampires-usb-cables-tesla-q1-earnings-call-2021-4-1030350988">Quote of the week:</a></h2>"We've had production stop because of a USB cable. At one point, for Model S, we literally raided every electronics store in the Bay Area. For a few days there, nobody could buy a USB cable in the Bay Area because we went and bought them all to put them in the car."<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/elon-musk-ai-vampires-usb-cables-tesla-q1-earnings-call-2021-4-1030350988"><div type="image" title="elon musk" height="1552" width="2000" msid="82344747" hostid="261"></div></a>- <keyword id="6355315" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="elon-musk">Elon Musk</keyword> <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/elon-musk-ai-vampires-usb-cables-tesla-q1-earnings-call-2021-4-1030350988">on Tesla's earnings call describing the impact of component shortages</a> to the electric carmaker's production line.<h3>Recommended readings:</h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/etsy-sells-ivory-weapons-poisonous-plants-mass-produced-products-2021-4">Etsy is awash with illicit products it claims to ban, from ivory to dangerous weapons and mass-produced goods</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-tanium-employees-linkedin-bids-buy-shares-2021-4">Ex-Tanium employees say they're receiving bids to buy their shares, but the company often grabs those shares itself</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang-nvidia-ceo-management-leadership-graphics-ai-cars-2021-4">CEO Jensen Huang has evolved the $300 billion Nvidia from video-game hardware to AI to autonomous car tech - here's how he sees around every corner</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-apple-alphabet-google-microsoft-self-driving-autonomous-vehicles2021-4">Why Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, and Sundar Pichai are fighting harder than ever to win the ongoing battle over self-driving cars</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-ken-glueck-mara-hvistendahl-china-2021-4">A top Oracle exec wrote an official blog entry asking for 'any information' about a reporter who wrote a story critical of the database giant's links to China</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-supreme-court-iphone-cookies-tracking-2021-4">Google is facing a $4 billion Supreme Court case over claims it secretly tracked iPhone users' internet activity</a><h3>Not necessarily in tech:</h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-first-100-days-how-compare-trump-obama-bush-clinton-2021-4">Biden's first 100 days: Charts show how they compare with Trump's, Obama's, Bush's, and Clinton's</a>Thanks for reading, and if you like this newsletter, <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-tech">tell your friends and colleagues they can sign up here to receive it</a>.- Alexei

You Searched For "feras antoon" and got 6 results

The CEO and COO of Pornhub's parent company have both resigned

Isobel Asher Hamilton

Pornhub founder Feras Antoon's $20 million Montreal mansion went up in flames after a suspected arson attack

Kate Duffy

The fund that just bought Pornhub owner MindGeek won't say who's running the company due to 'unfortunate stigma,' report says

Jyoti Mann

Pornhub's elusive co-owner broke a decade-long media silence after his $16 million mansion burned to the ground

Allana Akhtar

Will the Pornhub mansion fire ever be solved?

Chris Francescani

Googlers fight to stay home and Apple goes to court

Alexei Oreskovic

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