It is primarily involved in internet pornography, operating a number of video sharing websites (including platforms such as Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn), and pornographic film studios such as Brazzers, Digital Playground, Men.com, Reality Kings, Sean Cody, and WhyNotBi.com, among others.
[8] Aylo's headquarters are located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but the company's corporate structure is divided among entities domiciled in a number of other countries (including tax havens such as Curaçao and Luxembourg).
They were sued in California for hosting non-consensual pornography produced by GirlsDoPorn, which coerced women into appearing in their videos under false pretenses.
In January 2021, a class action lawsuit making similar claims was launched in Montreal for anyone who had pornography photos and videos, some of which may have been taken when they were underage, shared on its websites without their consent, since 2007.
[16] The lawsuit stated that the company knowingly did not "investigate or question its business partner regarding the mounting evidence of sex trafficking".
[18][19] On 21 December 2023, Aylo agreed to pay a fine of $1.8 million plus additional compensation to GirlsDoPorn victims, and to have an independent party assess their content moderation processes for three years.
[20][21] In the late 1990s, German Fabian Thylmann created NATS (Next-Generation Affiliate Tracking Software), which was used for marketing pornography across different websites.
In 2011, the company raised US$362 million in financing from 125 secret investors, including Fortress Investment Group, JPMorgan Chase, and Cornell University.
[39] In January 2012, Manwin signed a deal to acquire the assets of the American pornographic movie studio Digital Playground.
According to the charges, some MindGeek executives were found to have benefited from the leak of information, although they were not major players in the insider trading ring.
[53] In December 2014, MindGeek announced they had signed a deal to manage the online assets of Really Useful Ltd., some of which include the websites BDSM.xxx, Casting.xxx, Czech.xxx, DaneJones.com, Fake Taxi, Lesbea.com, MassageRooms.com, Mature.xxx, Mom.xxx, Orgasms.xxx, PublicAgent.com, PublicSex.xxx, Teen.xxx, and Tubes.xxx.
[68] It has been reported that MindGeek's dominance in online pornography may have negative results because of the monopolistic powers they have from owning both production and distribution avenues.
[90] In August 2023, as part of the Pornhub network, Aylo launched UViU, a platform for creators to sell content directly to fans.
[93][94][95] MindGeek owns the pornographic movie studios Babes.com,[44] Brazzers, Digital Playground, Reality Kings, Sean Cody, Twistys,[96] Mofos.com and Men.com,[97][98] they manage the websites of Wicked Pictures,[99] and Really Useful Ltd.,[54] and they established 3DXSTAR in partnership with Funky Monkey Productions.
The committee ran the No on Measure B campaign, against a proposed law to require the use of condoms in all vaginal and anal sex scenes in pornography productions filmed in Los Angeles County, California.
[106] In mid-March 2023, it was reported that the Russian private military company Wagner Group had purchased recruitment advertising on the network, which was later pulled by Pornhub due to its political nature.
[107][108][109] In April 2013, security researcher Conrad Longmore published a report on the serving of malvertising by third-party advertisers on internet pornography websites.
[112] Longmore's figures were collected using Google Safe Browsing Diagnostics,[113] which looks for harmful content on websites, and the statistics for two sites; xHamster and Pornhub were published by BBC News.
[105] Many US states have passed legislation requiring pornographic websites to verify that their users are aged under 18, or else be vulnerable to civil lawsuits.
[116] In March 2014 the UK video-on-demand co-regulator ATVOD requested a change in the law so that credit and debit card operators would be forbidden from processing payments from British customers of pornographic websites that did not carry out age checks before granting access.
"[125] In October 2019 the UK government abandoned their existing plans, instead proposing the introduction of an alternative regulatory system for the Internet.
[126] Manwin Licensing and Digital Playground filed an antitrust lawsuit in California in November 2011, against ICANN and ICM Registry over the introduction of the .xxx TLD.
"[130] In May 2013, Manwin agreed to settle the antitrust lawsuit it brought against ICM Registry over the cost of .xxx web domain names.
[citation needed] In May 2013, ExitExchange Corp. sued Manwin USA Inc. in Texas, alleging that its patent for pop-under advertisements had been infringed by Tube8.com and Pornhub.com.
[132] In July 2013, Manwin was sued by John Mikkelson and Robert Freidson, the operators of Skky Inc., in Minneapolis over the alleged infringement of a patent that describes a method for delivering compressed audio and images on mobile devices.
[135] In December 2020, MindGeek was sued in California for hosting non-consensual pornography produced by GirlsDoPorn, which coerced women into appearing in their videos under false pretenses.
The Canadian proposed class action sought $600 million for anyone who had pornography photos and videos, some of which may have been taken when they were underage, shared on MindGeek's sites without their consent, since 2007.
[16] The lawsuit stated that MindGeek knowingly did not "investigate or question its business partner regarding the mounting evidence of sex trafficking".
[17] On 21 December 2023, Aylo agreed to pay a fine of $1.8 million plus additional compensation to GirlsDoPorn victims, and to have an independent party assess their content moderation processes for three years.
[20][21] In February 2021, a civil class action lawsuit against MindGeek was launched in Alabama and it leveled claims against MindGeek/Pornhub on behalf of child sex trafficking victims.