Pornhub Owner Aylo to Pay $5M in FTC Settlement Over Abusive Content

Washington, D.C. — Pornhub’s parent company Aylo, formerly known as MindGeek, has agreed to pay a $5 million settlement to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the state of Utah over longstanding failures to block child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and nonconsensual content (NCM) on its platforms.

The case follows years of criticism of Aylo’s flagship site Pornhub, which came under fire after a 2020 New York Times investigation revealed that CSAM and abusive material were being uploaded and monetized. Only after credit card companies cut ties did Aylo begin requiring age and consent verification for performers.

Despite those changes, regulators said illegal content continued to circulate. According to the FTC, Aylo also mishandled sensitive performer data by keeping copies of IDs, Social Security numbers, and addresses without encryption or proper security measures, contradicting its promises that personal information was protected.

The agency further alleged that Aylo’s ban system for offenders was ineffective, allowing users who tried to upload CSAM to return under new accounts. Its “fingerprinting” technology, designed to prevent re-uploads of abusive videos, failed for years, enabling hundreds of flagged videos to resurface between 2017 and 2021.

Settlement Terms

As part of the settlement, Aylo must:

• Verify the identity and consent of all individuals appearing in uploaded videos and photos.
• Enforce stronger safeguards to block CSAM and NCM.
• Remove older content uploaded before stricter systems were introduced.
• Submit to independent, third-party audits for the next ten years.

In a statement, Aylo said the agreement “reaffirms [its] efforts to prevent the publication of CSAM and NCM,” while noting that most of the measures were already underway.

The case represents one of the toughest actions U.S. regulators have taken against a major adult platform, signaling heightened scrutiny over online safety, performer protection, and data privacy in the adult entertainment industry.