June 24, 2022 | The Biz

Big changes at MindGeek

MindGeek's CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Tassillo have stepped down. As of Tuesday, they are no longer working at the company, though they will continue as majority shareholders and owners.

This is also the end of the line for many employees. According to sources to the Globe and Mail, declining revenue is cited as the reason behind upcoming layoffs. How many people will be losing their jobs is unknown, but many have come forward on social media to share that they no longer work for the company.

According to MindGeek, its focus going forward is to “invest deeply” in expanding “creator-first offerings,” claiming that it has given “hundreds of thousands of models with the opportunity to earn a living.”

The company has been struggling for years due to a variety of factors.

There have been lawsuits from women, claiming several of MindGeek's sites, including Pornhub and YouPorn, shared non-consensual sex videos. Some, according to claims, involved underaged girls. One class action suit, from 50 women, was settled for an undisclosed amount. And just this past April, law firm Diamond & Diamond initiated a $500-million class-action lawsuit arguing that Pornhub failed to “properly screen sexual content” being uploaded and hosted by the website..

Adding to the company's problems: Mastercard and Visa started to refuse to process payments for various MindGeek properties unless changes were made, including proper moderation and blocking illegal content.

And, of course, many of MindGeek's membership sites have suffered from a glut of freely available porn. Ironically, it is sites like Pornhub that have seduced paying customers away from once popular and profitable sites.

Tube sites like Pornhub are its biggest revenue generators, though. And in 2020, MindGeek brought in US$731-million thanks to approximately 150-million global visitors daily. These sites are also the source of many of the company's troubles.

MindGeek says these issues have been addressed. It claims all content was vetted by both human and computer moderators, and that all flagged videos are disabled until they can be reviewed. And as of 2020, only users who have proven their identity are able to upload content.

How this will affect your favourite gay porn brands, from Sean Cody to Men.com, remains to be seen. Though, for now, they should be safe from any major changes.