Pornhub owner MindGeek was acquired by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners (ECP). ECP did not disclose the deal’s terms. The acquisition followed a turbulent period for the MindGeeek, which had both its CEO and COO depart in June 2022. The company has also been accused of knowingly profiting from child sexual abuse material (CSAM), leading to many credit and payment companies, including Mastercard and PayPal, no longer processing payments on its site. ECP referred to MindGeek as the “internet leader in fighting illegal online content” and cited the company’s moderation practices, which require human moderators to manually review all uploads.
ECP believes that the lawsuits and criticism stem from a misunderstanding of how MindGeek safeguards its content, and the new ownership wants to exercise transparency. ECP has complete control of the acquisition and the assets, with no previous shareholders retaining any ownership, right or control of the company. MindGeek’s remaining executives will continue running the company, but their identities will not be disclosed due to the stigma attached to the industry. Mastercard has reinstated access to MindGeek’s subscription sites, but not for its advertising arm TrafficJunky, which was cut off by credit card companies last year
Read More: Tech Crunch
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