Pornhub Owner Aylo Fined 1.8 Million US Dollor by Government for Charge of Profiting Off of Sex Trafficking

Aylo, the company that runs Pornhub and other adult websites, admitted in a federal court in Brooklyn that it profited from content featuring victims of sex trafficking. This is why the court has ordered the company to pay a fine of $1.8 million. Aylo was earlier named MindGeek, which was changed in August this year. The reason for this rebranding is to give a fresh start to its identity by the new owners of the company.

Aylo Holdings SARL pleaded not guilty to charges related to illicit financial transactions involving the proceeds of sex trafficking, The New York Times reports. However, they reached a deal with prosecutors to compensate women who were forced to appear in explicit videos posted on their websites without their consent.

As part of the settlement, the company will pay a fine of more than $1.8 million. They will also be assigned a monitor to assess their content screening protocols and response to reports of illegal content. In exchange, the charges against Aylo would be dropped after three years.

Aylo operates various websites where third-party adult content may be shared. Starting in 2009, Aiello hosted explicit videos from production companies GirlsDoporn and GirlsDoToys.

The report states that between 2016 and 2019, Aiello received messages from women saying they had been duped into filming videos for these companies, which were then posted on Pornhub without their consent. Despite being aware of this and the victims' 2017 lawsuit, Aiello continued to host videos and profit from partnerships with production companies.

In 2019, the operators of Girlsdoporn and Girlsdotoys faced charges in California related to sex trafficking and defrauding women in explicit videos posted online without their consent. Aylo removed these videos from his platform in late 2020. Aiello also expressed deep regret in a statement for hosting the content of Girlsdoporn and Girlsdotoys.