Money Shot: The Pornhub Story review: A revealing look into the controversial adult entertainment industry

3/5

Story: The documentary follows the rise of the most famous adult entertainment platform, Pornhub, and the backlash it has received through interviews with former employees, porn performers, lawyers, and journalists.

Review: Fortunately or unfortunately, you’ve heard about the adult entertainment platform Pornhub. One of the biggest porn sites in the world, it received billions of visits every day and made a fortune for its owners. 

Money Shot: The Pornhub Story throws light into the workings of the website and its revenue model from insiders and experts, and alludes to the fact that those in power were purposely lax with their security measures, risking the wellbeing of underage victims of sexual abuse just to profit from it. 

The documentary also shows that the website was a platform that enabled sex workers to safely create content and make money from it, thereby creating financial freedom and empowerment for innumerable male and female sex performers.

All was going well for the porn giant until its dark, seedy side was exposed in 2020. Allowing unverified users to upload content resulted in several videos of child trafficking that couldn’t be traced to the person who uploaded them. 

This sparked the global #TraffickingHub campaign spearheaded by Laila Mickelwait, exposing the several security lapses and the exploitation of Pornhub and its parent company, MindGeek. 

As is widely known, Pornub deleted around 10 million videos overnight after a lawsuit in which it was pulled up and held accountable for showing videos of rape and minors. But who did this actually affect? 

This documentary shows the effect that the lawsuit and the move to shut down Pornhub had on sex content creators and how it makes them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. 

Verdict: A lot of what's shown in the documentary is what one already must have read about or watched in the news, but with additional input. 

What is most valuable about the documentary is the understanding one gains about sex performers and how they make a living, as well as the importance of platforms like Pornhub and OnlyFans that allow them to own their content and monetise it directly.

While prominent members involved in the entire Pornhub fiasco have been interviewed, one wonders why Laila Mickelwait – who is perhaps the most important figure – does not feature in it. 

Money Shot: The Pornhub Story throws up an important question: Is banning porn on one website enough to protect vulnerable children, women, and men? And is there really a David that can take on the Goliath that is the World Wide Web?