In a newly released video filmed by an undercover investigator, a Pornhub employee acknowledged that the site is used by human traffickers and rapists to profit off their crimes.
Pornhub currently allows users to directly upload their own pornographic content to the site. All a user needs for verification is a government ID, according to the video released by Sound Investigations.
Users do not have to identify the people in their videos. This allows rapists, human traffickers and providers of child pornography to upload illegal videos.
Mike Farley, a product manager at MindGeek, Pornhub’s parent company, said in the undercover video that he was one of Pornhub’s first employees. He called the policy a “loophole.”
When asked who exploits this loophole, Farley told the undercover journalist, “F***ing everybody. Everyone. … It’s just an easy way to make money.”
“Do rapists use it?” the journalist asked.
“Of course,” Farley said. He said the same of human traffickers.
WARNING: The following video contains language that some viewers will find offensive.
For Farley, the loophole is an ethical sinkhole. “You shouldn’t have content up that you can’t identify the person,” he said.
However, according to Farley, company executives are more concerned about profit margins than compliance. He said he and other employees have raised concerns about the ID issues, but were dismissed by higher-ups.
If Pornhub closed the loophole, “they would lose a lot of money,” Farley said. “That’s why they don’t want to do it.”
Farley also revealed that the company cooperates with authorities as little as possible.
“We’re not supposed to help them regulate us,” he said.
However, when asked what the government would do in response to the loophole, Farley said, “They’re not going to do s***. They’ll do nothing.”
Pornhub, one of the most visited websites worldwide, has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years.
Major credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard banned payments to Pornhub in 2020 after a report in The New York Times alleged that the site “monetizes child rapes” and other crimes.
Last year, a judge ruled that Visa was complicit in MindGeek’s monetization of child porn.
Pornhub has blocked access to users in several states rather than comply with new child safety laws requiring users to verify their age.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.