The epicentre of the adult entertainment industry is an unassuming, grey corporate building in Montreal. This is the home of Pornhub, the 12th most visited website in the world and a brand now so pervasive that one can legitimately claim to know about it via cultural osmosis or a billboard in Times Square.
Netflix documentary Money Shot: The Pornhub Story outlines the savvy and cynical strategies underpinning the company’s success. More significantly, it goes on to examine the accusations that Pornhub has at best overlooked, at worst actively profited from, sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking.
In 2020, a New York Times investigation highlighted how content featuring minors, unconsenting adults and violent assault was being hosted on the site. Major public backlash, lawsuits and the withdrawal of key financial partners soon followed. Pornhub and parent company MindGeek have repeatedly rejected allegations of criminality, but have since removed some 10mn unverified videos.
Risqué title aside, Money Shot is largely serious-minded in its approach and can be seen as a counterpart to the FT’s own Hot Money podcast. Over 90 minutes a number of journalists, child protection experts and whistleblowers provide disturbing accounts of Pornhub’s grave shortcomings — from lax content moderation to their inadequate response to victims of unsanctioned uploads. One particularly enraging claim suggests that the site continued to generate revenue from flagged and even deleted videos.
Director Suzanne Hillinger is as interested in debate as she is in reportage. Throughout, the film considers whether urgent criticisms of insufficient regulation are perhaps leading to wider campaigns against pornography, and invites leading adult performers to share their perspectives. We hear how Pornhub has given them the agency to earn independently of studios and why they’re frustrated that the porn industry is being singled out in an internet-wide issue.
From a divisive, combustible subject, Hillinger manages to rise to the challenge of retaining journalistic distance and steering clear of both moralising prudishness and prurience. But while the film’s focus is mainly on the business of porn, a few explicit shots do mean that this is definitely NSFW viewing.
★★★★☆
On Netflix from March 15
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