Aylo, the owner of Pornhub, will pay a $5 million settlement to the FTC and the state of Utah. The settlement addresses allegations that the company knowingly profited from child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual content.
The company, formerly known as Mindgeek, made significant changes to its content moderation policies in late 2020. This shift occurred after a New York Times exposé revealed that Pornhub, Aylo’s most popular website, had failed to prevent and remove uploads of illegal material. It was only after pressure from credit card operators that the company began to verify the ages of all actors in uploaded videos and require documentation proving the actors’ consent.
However, the FTC and Utah allege that even after Aylo enacted these safeguards, the company continued to host illegal content and irresponsibly manage consumer data. According to the FTC, Aylo failed to disclose that after performers verified their identities through a third-party vendor, the company obtained that data to hold indefinitely. This data, which the FTC alleges was not stored safely, could include Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdates, and other sensitive information from government IDs.
The FTC stated that Aylo told its models they could trust that their personal data remained secure, yet failed to use standard security measures to protect it. The company did not encrypt the personal data it stored, failed to limit access to the data, and did not store the data behind a firewall.
The FTC also claims that Aylo failed to keep its promise to ban users who attempted to upload child sexual abuse material. The complaint says Aylo only prohibited these users from making a new account using the same username or email address.
Aylo also committed to fingerprinting videos suspected to be illegal content so that any re-upload would be flagged. But the FTC alleges this technology was not effective from at least 2017 to August 2021, resulting in hundreds of videos previously identified as illegal material being reuploaded.
Aylo willingly entered into this settlement. The company stated that the agreement reaffirms its efforts to prevent the publication of illegal content. As part of the settlement, Aylo must verify the consent and identity of anyone who appears in uploaded photos or videos. The company is also ordered to enact policies, procedures, and technical measures to block the publication of illegal material and remove content posted prior to this new system.
Aylo said the resolution involved enhancements to existing measures but did not introduce any new substantive requirements that were not already in place or in progress. For the next ten years, Aylo will face independent third-party audits to ensure the company adheres to the terms of the settlement.