Adult entertainment online site PornHub is more like a “data-harvesting operation”, according to a new Netflix documentary.
The ‘Money Shot: The PornHub Story’ film premiered on the streaming service this week and viewers were warned that the site is more than just a racy film platform. And there will no doubt be a few people out there who will have been given the chills after watching the fascinating programme, reports the Daily Star.
The documentary explained that MindGeek, the company behind sites like PornHub, XTube and RedTube, are very good at collecting users’ personal data.
Journalist Martin Patriquin explained: “This is a company that does exactly what Netflix does, what Facebook does. It gathers data on its users to better tailor content towards those eyeballs.”
He added that the company is “extremely good” at what it does: “In fact, better at it than Netflix”. For a site with more than 120 million daily users, that’s a lot of data.
The digital analysis is used to see what paying subscribers want from the site in order to show the best advertisements. Some sites even offer AI to predict top search trends.
Elsewhere on the programme, various adult stars opened up on the “attack” targeting the XXX-rated film industry. Campaigns like TraffickingHub, from a conservative Christian right-wing group, have called for the site to be completely shut down, claiming it dabbled in sex trafficking.
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But adult stars disagree, with Cherie DeVille explaining: “It’s a nightmare for us because when you present two unrelated things as being closely related in a paper everyone’s going to believe, what happens? Well, exactly what you think would happen.
“The public sees it and they are outraged because it is outrageous and it is horrible and it is something nobody wants and then they say, ‘That is trash and we need to eliminate it’.”
Asa Akira added: “They neglect to see that sex work and sex trafficking are two completely different things.”
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