MONTREAL—Attorneys general from 26 U.S. states, predominantly conservative Republicans, have sent a joint letter to the parent company of Pornhub asking to close a so-called "predator loophole" in the verification process for uploading video content to the platform.
Led by South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, the letter features the signatures of critics of the porn industry as a whole, like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.
Other state attorneys general represented include officials from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The letter addresses senior trust and safety executives at Aylo and its ownership group, including Ethical Capital Partners Vice President for Compliance, Solomon Friedman.
Basing the query on a series of investigative videos capturing Aylo employees without their knowledge, the attorneys general have requested that Aylo address this matter and explain how they are addressing it within 30 days.
"We are concerned that Aylo and its subsidiary Pornhub, and possibly other subsidiaries, may be proliferating the production and dissemination of CSAM through the 'loophole' identified by your employee," the attorneys general write.
"Please provide us with an explanation of this 'loophole;' whether Aylo and its subsidiaries do, in fact, permit content creators and performers to obscure their faces in uploaded content; and, if so, whether Aylo is taking measures to change this policy to ensure that no children or other victims are being abused for profit on any of its platforms.”
“We are committed to transparency and will respond to the attorneys general within the required timeline,” says a spokesperson from Ethical Capital Partners, Aylo’s ownership group. “We recognize the evolving challenges posed by user-generated content online. As such, we are constantly evolving and improving safety and security measures, which include (among others) Upload Verification Program, banning downloads, human moderation of all uploaded content, and continuous additions to our suite of automated moderation tools (CSAI Match, Content Safety API, PhotoDNA, Vobile, Safer, Safeguard, and more recently, NCMEC Take It Down and StopNCII).”
The attorneys general additionally insinuate that Pornhub doesn't take CSAM prevention and reporting seriously.
Pornhub and affiliated properties report voluntarily to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) CyberTipline program.
The Aylo subsidiary responsible for managing Pornhub and its sister tube sites, MG Freesites, reported more than 2,000 cases of potential CSAM to the CyberTipline program in 2022.
Caseworkers at NCMEC also only sent one takedown notification and removed it within a day.
In comparison, mainstream social media platforms—namely Facebook and Instagram—have much greater reporting volumes.
Meta reported 21,165,208 potential cases of CSAM via its Facebook division.
Takedown time for red-flag cases of CSAM on Meta-owned sites took more than four days for Facebook and less than four days for Instagram.
“As state attorneys general—and parents—we are deeply concerned by recent reports of this possible workaround that could permit countless children to be victimized,” the letter adds.
“There are a number of reasons why a verified model may choose to upload content that does not include their face, including their right to privacy,” the spokesperson for Ethical Capital Partners adds. “For this reason, we take extra precautions to ensure this content can be uploaded safely.”
