Last Updated on June 22, 2022
Top executives of internet pornography conglomerate company Mindgeek have resigned amidst nonconsensual content scandals.
The CEO and COO of Mindgeek, the parent company of Pornhub and various other internet pornography platforms, have stepped down from their leadership roles they’ve held for over a decade.
Feras Antoon, the CEO, and David Tassillo, the COO, will continue to be shareholders in the company, according to Variety.
The resignations come after The New Yorker investigated the company for platforming videos of underage minors and non-consenting victims for years. The New Yorker interviewed multiple women who claim videos and photos of themselves were uploaded to the website without their consent. The women claim it took months for their content to be finally removed.
A Mindgeek spokesman alleges the CEO and COO’s departures are unrelated to the accusations the company is facing. The spokesman claims there are safeguard in place that removed child sexual abuse content.
“MindGeek has more comprehensive and effective policies than any other major platform on the internet,” the company said.
Mindgeek’s company has over 1,000 employees managing it and its conglomerate of sites has over 150 million viewers daily.
The company faced a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in 2021 which alleged Mindgeek violated federal sex trafficking laws and distributed child pornography.
The suit alleged MindGeek profited from the illegal content on their site and is set to go to trial sometime next year.
With Mindgeek’s headquarters being based in Montreal and Los Angeles, a federal privacy official in Canada also began an investigation into the company last year.
In 2020, Visa and Mastercard both suspended their payment processors on Pornhub after The New York Times discovered unlawful content present on the website.
Stay tuned to National File for any updates.
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