If you've ever seen a porn video on the internet, it's very possible that it was on Pornhub, YouTube's equivalent of quintessential porn. And although it might seem like a dark and secluded corner of the web, the truth is that it is one of the most viewed websites in the world, with more traffic than Netflix or Amazon, and the most profitable of the many legs of the MindGeek company. YouPorn, RedTube, Men.com, Sean Cody or MILF Hunter are part of the same business group, which Netflix is now focusing on through a documentary directed by Suzanne Hillinger.
Its title, To the Bottom: The Story of Pornhub, suggests that we are either dealing with a deep and playful portrait of the porn industry and its actors and actresses or that it is going to air what happens in the offices of the million-dollar company What is behind the famous page. And although it is a good play on words, in reality, neither of those two are the paths he follows. While in the first half hour we find ourselves with a portrait in use by MindGeek, with the classic story of how a technology company takes over an emerging market and turns a simple idea into a golden business, once the context is set, the documentary becomes focuses on showing us the accusations and legal problems around her, both as a result of an opinion report by The New York Times in 2020 and by the accusations of different law firms, activists and organizations against pornography or sex trafficking, to sometimes confusing terms.
The original name is perhaps more accurate: Money Shot, which in a first sense talks about money, although in colloquial English it refers to the moment a porn actor ejaculates (since if he can't do it in front of the camera, he generally doesn't get paid). . Because more than about bed scenes or what it means to be a pornstar today, the documentary deals with all the money that this adult video website moves, the opacity of its company and the lack of ethics with which it has operated. With relevant testimonials such as that of Noelle Perdue, who worked for MindGeek for three years, we discover the lights and shadows of an industry that has mutated, like so many others, at the pace of technological evolution.
the documentary invites us to reflect on the relationship of the human being with pornography and sex
According to this former employee, Pornhub moved in the right direction when it launched the ModelHub business, where porn creators could upload their own content to the web and monetize it, with a model halfway between YouTube and OnlyFans: it not only opened a channel exchange between performers and viewers, but also guaranteed the veracity of the identity of those who uploaded content.
And that was precisely the dark side of the platform: at the same time, they left open the possibility that anyone could upload pornographic videos to the platform from anonymity, claiming that the law does not require them to be responsible for what others post. Videos of sexual revenge, rape or even minors sneaked into the Pornhub network, and were monetized, without anyone doing anything to stop it. Looking the other way was very profitable.
And that was precisely the complaint by the New York journalist Nicholas Kristof, who exposed cases of girls whose worst moments were posted on the web. Pornhub hosted thousands of pedophile videos uploaded by anonymous users and made money from them. They moderated them, supposedly, but they didn't put in enough effort.
Videos of sexual revenge, rape or even of minors sneaked into the network
The scandal, along with the viral protests by groups against sex trafficking (which were behind ultra-Catholic organizations that oppose the porn industry in general), led MasterCard and Visa to withdraw from Pornhub under pressure and upset the subscription model. And paid; The most affected, paradoxically, were those who did upload legal content and saw their source of income cut off. The other blow would be dealt by Trump with the FOSTA-SESTA law, very contrary to the interests of sex workers.
In the midst of this storm, and the media focus that the documentary gives it, on March 17 MindGeek was acquired by a Canadian venture capital firm called Ethical Capital Partners, created in 2022 by lawyers and former executives of the cannabis industry, for a economic amount that has not transpired. The future of the company is now up in the air, although, according to SimilarWeb, it remains at number 12 of the most visited websites in the world, as of February 2023.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Hasta al fondo is that, by putting an always taboo subject on the table, it invites us to reflect on our relationship with pornography. At a time when we are more aware than ever about the importance of consent, it helps us to look at porn from different angles: ethical (is the content we consume legal and healthy?), legal (are the people we see in screen according to their presence on the internet?) and even financial (are the performers of the videos we consume financially rewarded or is it stolen content?). Because, yes, there is also responsibility as consumers when it comes to porn.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
