Money Shot The Pornhub Story is now on Netflix. 10 takeaways

Money Shot: The Pornhub Story dropped on Netflix last week and obviously, the title alone was enough for it to trend. The documentary is essentially a continuation of “The Children of Pornhub”, the 2020 New York Times op-ed by Nicholas Kristof that sent shockwaves through the pornographic industry (specifically the titular porn distribution giant).

So, if you’ve read that opinion piece and followed the discourse after that (among both the critics and the supporters), then Money Shot might not offer you many new things. Regardless, it’s an interesting look that taps the surface of the dark depths of the Internet.

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For the ones who are still intrigued about it, here are some of the major takeaways. 

Trigger warning: Mentions of sexual assault and child pornography. 

1. Pornhub = Netflix and Facebook?

As the documentary re-states, Pornhub was first founded by three college boys with the ownership later changing hands to Canadian multi-media conglomerate MindGeek. To this day, MindGeek owns several pornographic distribution platforms but Pornhub reigns supreme. As American pornographic actress Asa Akira puts it, “Pornhub has become a household name.” 

But when it comes to their methods to cater to their users, they are doing exactly what other major companies like Netflix and Facebook are doing. The Logic journalist Martin Patriquin, who is one of the documentary’s interviewees, says, 

2. Pornhub’s advertising and SEO game was on point 

Part of Pornhub’s popularity is due to its marketing game. From roping in Kanye West as a creative director for one of their award ceremonies to buying Times Square ad slots, no other porn company has made noise like Pornhub. 

Porn industry professional Noelle Burdue, who is interviewed heavily in Money Shot, emphasises how the company also nailed their SEO approach to grab a top ranking on Google searches every time someone was looking for something raunchy (especially from a straight male gaze). Just go to Google, and type in “big titties” and Pornhub pops up first. 

3. The concept of teen porn 

A weird eye-rolling moment for the audience might be when some of the interviewees in Money Shot explained the pornographic definition of “teen”. So, when people search for “teen porn”, they might not always want to check out actual teenagers getting sexually involved (unless they are obviously sick sexual perverts) but rather, they would want to watch a video with performers of petite teen-like bodies. 

Pornstar Cherie DeVille explained this notion of teen porn, mentioning that every person visiting a porn site will have their own preferences and we cannot control that. But then again, DeVille adds that this allows “anyone to upload anything”. That’s where the problem starts. 

4. Verification. Verification. Verification.

The documentary spares no details in elaborating on the New York Times story by Kristoff. In his op-ed, the Pulitzer winner detailed the stories of women who were sexually abused and filmed when they were underaged, with their videos uploaded on Pornhub and similar porn sites. 

When many, like Serena K Fleites (whose video was uploaded when she was aged 14), reached out to Pornhub to take down the video, the website took over two weeks to respond. And even when they did take it down, someone else uploaded it on the website from another account. And this pattern of the video’s deletion and re-emergence carried on. 

Money Shot, much like Kristoff’s piece, highlighted the verification problems that plague Pornhub. With the website allowing many unverified accounts (meaning that the account holders don’t have to submit legal ID) to upload videos, much of the content on Pornhub included child porn or depictions of actual sexual abuse. 

With Mastercard and Visa ending its partnerships as payment gateways for Pornhub, the company pushed down on unverified content which led to the removal of millions of videos. 

5. But was the battle won?

Pornhub, despite all its popularity, is just the tip of the iceberg. As porn industry advocate Mike Stabile told Money Shot director Suzanne Hillinger, illegal content like child porn is more likely to be distributed on Facebook than websites where it would be more obvious like Pornhub. 

Previously too, platforms like Reddit have received much scrutiny with many subreddits dealing with content around sexual exploitation, doxxing, nude images being shared without consent, and so on. Just look at the “Boys Locker Room” fiasco as an example that hits closer home. The subreddit involved many school-going boys sharing and even “rating” the nudes of their female friends. 

So, while Pornhub took down unverified content (which itself might have contributed to good profits before December 2020), the battle is far from won. Underage sexual exploitation continues to be a major trend in untraceable Dark Web websites too. And if a public platform like Pornhub had verification issues, you can imagine how truly unverified Dark Web might be! Child porn. Beasteality. Necrophilia. There’s ultimately a black market for everything imaginable. 

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Interestingly, Stabile also mentioned that Mastercard and Visa’s decision of pulling out wouldn’t affect Pornhub’s profits much as the company is more dependent on the ad banners from third-party partners instead of individual subscriptions. 

6. Is all of Pornhub bad?

Pornhub through its Modelhub program allowed many amateur pornstars to have autonomy in their work. As amateur porn performer and self-identified sex-worker Gwen Andora gave a rundown of her work, she loves the freedom that she gets in choosing her own storylines. Most of the time, she records herself in front of the camera and then uploads it on Pornhub, making use of the website’s high traffic. 

Following the viral response of the New York Times article, Pornhub’s breakup with Visa/Mastercard, and the public backlash all over the world, it were the sex workers who were ultimately affected. 

Performers like Andora and Akira never denied that unlawful content cannot be published on Pornhub. And in fact, as pornstar Siri Dahl told both Kristoff and Hillinger, a vast majority of pornstars have already been trying to push for stricter moderation policies. Andora and Akira along with other porn advocates tried to convince the public that just because of the unverified content, their own work should not be boycotted. 

Akira and Dahl (who herself was a victim of sexual abuse) reaffirm that the scenes that they have shot have all been directed with mutual consent among the actors. 

The war against Pornhub’s sexual exploitation soon turned into a war against all of Pornhub. Pornhub’s featured pornstars began to be seen as minions to a “Sopranos-like” mafia. Sex traficking became equated to all of sex work. 

7. Who is Pornhub’s Enemy #1?

The fight against Pornhub can be traced back to the hashtag #TraffickingHub that rightly pointed out the perils of unverified content. This hashtag evolved into a petition to shut down Pornhub with the petition gaining a whopping 2 million signatures! Much like how the manufacturers of the lethal medically-prescribed drug Oxycontin came under Big Pharma, Pornhub began to be categorised as Big Porn.

But who was the most vocal voice to take down Pornhub? That might be activist Laila Mickelwait. 

Mickelwait’s background check can lead to some clarification. She had formerly served in a top position at the non-profit Exodus Cry that strove to highlight sex work as immoral. It’s no surprise then that one of Exodus Cry’s founders was a conservative Evangelical preacher. 

So, unfortunately, Kristoff’s piece became a Pandora’s box, revealing information for all: public advocates concerned for the wellbeing of those exploited by Pornhub as well as right-wing extremists who found a new opportunity to affect the livelihood and public image of (verified) porn performers and sex workers. 

8. Who moderates Pornhub’s content?

The job of a moderator in any video-streaming platform is to go through the video and make notes regarding any extreme or problematic content. This feedback would go up the company ladder before an executive decision is taken regarding removing/censoring some content. 

What’s interesting is that Pornhub that is currently ranked as the #4 website in the world with 11.21 billion monthly visits (as of February 2023), seems to have less than a hundred content moderators. As per an anonymous moderator who talked to the New York Times and the Netflix team, Pornhub just has 80 moderators. Yes, a company with millions of videos and only 80 people to screen them!

These employees are required to go through 600-700 videos in a single day and make their notes on what needs to be moderated. Naturally, many of the moderators watch the videos on fast forward, sometimes missing out on crucial content that might point to disturbing results. 

For instance, some videos can involve non-consensual sex with a person uttering phrases like “No” or “Stop”. But if a burdened Pornhub moderator is just going through a few quick seconds of the video, they might miss out on such details. 

9. Porn script writers 

On a lighter note, one of the documentary’s chuckle-worthy moments was when Noelle Purdue opened up on how her stint at Pornhub started. She was fascinated by the prospect of someone actually writing the script for a porn scene. When she found out a job like this actually exists, she ended up applying for it and moved to MindGeek’s Montreal office. 

Guess we all have a new term to search on Linkedin now?

10. Lastly, does Money Shot break any new ground?

Unfortunately, despite its marketing, Money Shot doesn’t turn out to be a major expose of Pornhub. As mentioned earlier, a lot of Money Shot’s insights come off as paraphrasing Kristoff's 2020 article.

Overall, it doesn’t stoop to the soap opera-like drama Netflix’s true-crime docs like Gunther’s Millions and The Tiger King, but neither does it offer any 100%-new insights. Rather, it serves as a good Wikipedia-like explainer on Pornhub’s origins and controversies.