HOLLYWOOD—Netflix has announced that a documentary about the history of adult streaming titan Pornhub is slated to hit the platform March 15.
Entertainment trade outlet Variety reports that Money Shot: The Pornhub Story, from Alex Gibney's Jigsaw Productions, will tackle both Pornhub's rise into an adult entertainment monolith and the recent attacks it has received from multiple fronts over allegations of profiting from the distribution of underage and non-consensual videos.
A Netflix description of the 93-minute doc posits that Pornhub revolutionized adult by allowing smaller producers to reach “a massive audience while the company made billions of dollars—but it also became embroiled in allegations including non-consensual material and trafficking on the site. As anti-trafficking organizations seek justice for victims, can the online giant protect those from whom they profit, or is this a new wave of censorship for adult performers making consensual porn?"
Among the challenges Pornhub is currently facing is an ongoing federal lawsuit filed in June 2021 against parent company MindGeek accusing it of distributing child pornography. Visa is also named in the suit as an alleged knowing facilitator of MindGeek's ability to monetize the illegal material, and after a judge denied Visa's motion last summer to be removed from the case, both Visa and Mastercard cut off payment processing to MindGeek's advertising arm TrafficJunky.
Money Shot director and producer Suzanne Hillinger said in a statement from Netflix, "This documentary requires us to grapple with what sexuality and consent means when billion-dollar internet platforms thrive on user-generated content. Who has, and who should have, the power in these environments? Our hope is that this film generates important conversations about sex and consent, both on the internet and out in the world."
Image from Netflix.com.
