Porn company to pay Utah $5 million to settle allegations of posting abusive material

“Companies that profit from such conduct must be held accountable,” Gov. Spencer Cox said.

The parent company of Pornhub and Redtube, two of the most-visited pornographic websites in the world, has agreed to pay Utah $5 million, and potentially up to $15 million in fines, and to stop hosting videos depicting child sexual abuse material and depicting nonconsensual sex.

State regulators, the Utah Attorney General’s office and the Federal Trade Commission announced the agreement with Aylo on Wednesday, part of a consent decree resolving an enforcement action and lawsuit by the Utah Department of Commerce.

According to state officials, Aylo distributed tens of thousands of videos and photos from 2012 to 2020 that featured child sexual abuse material and non-consensual images and ignored hundreds of thousands of “flags” for years. The illegal content was viewed, downloaded and shared millions of times in that span.

“This consent order is an important step in protecting people from some of the most harmful and exploitative material online,” Gov. Spencer Cox said in a statement. “Companies that profit from such conduct must be held accountable.”

Margaret Busse, executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce, said that Aylo had “openly, repeatedly and severely violated” Utah’s laws by distributing “the worst of the worst” material.

The department’s investigation uncovered instances where Pornhub failed to verify the ages of people depicted in videos posted on the site, allowed videos that appeared to depict acts of rape, or where the individuals in the video did not consent to the video being shared.

In some instances, when the videos were removed, the operators of the site did nothing to prevent the material from being uploaded again. All the while, Busse said, Aylo was telling users it did not distribute child sexual abuse material or non-consensual material, documented and verified the ages of everyone in its videos and had a zero-tolerance policy.

Federal Trade Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, whose office partnered with Utah in its investigation, said Aylo profited for years by allegedly distributing tens of thousands of videos containing child sexual abuse material and non-consensual material that included revenge porn, spy camera video, rape and incest videos and “other appalling categories of content.” She said the distribution of the videos “revictimized” the people exploited in the making of the content.

Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said his office doesn’t comment on criminal investigations and the agreement, if Aylo doesn’t comply with the terms, specifically addresses potential criminal action.

“From our standpoint, what matters most here is we are … really forcing change in an industry that is long overdue in terms of need for change,” he said. “The toolbox, so to speak, of tools we have available to us … is plentiful, and one of them obviously is the criminal side, one of them is the civil side. Today is the civil side of the issue.”

In a statement, Aylo did not admit wrongdoing but acknowledged the concerns raised by the state and FTC. The company said it is “deeply committed to ensuring the safety and integrity of its platforms” and that the settlement “reaffirms and enhances” its efforts to keep child sexual abuse material and non-consensual material off its platforms.

The material at issue in the investigation predated 2020, the company said, and over the years, it has added uploader verification, proof of consent and identification for performers and models — and the settlement does not make any substantive changes to practices that were already in place or in progress.

“Aylo supports vigorous enforcement against [child sexual abuse material and non-consensual material] and encourages the FTC and [the state] to extend their initiative to protect the public across the broader internet, adult and mainstream, fostering a safer online environment for everyone,” the statement reads.

The agreement was formally filed, along with Utah’s lawsuit against the company, in federal court Wednesday morning. It must be approved by a judge before taking effect.

Under the terms of the settlement, Aylo must, among other things: take steps to ensure that child sexual abuse material and non-consensual material are not distributed on its platforms and respond to reports of such content on the site; implement a system to verify people in the videos and images consent to the production and distribution of the material; and remove content containing the illegal content.

Also, Aylo will pay the state $5 million immediately. Over the next 10 years, independent auditors will review Aylo’s compliance with the agreement and may impose up to $10 million in additional fines if Aylo doesn’t abide by the terms.

Busse said the action by Utah and the FTC could provide a template for other states that feel like their citizens were harmed by the exploitative material. Holyoak, who recently served as Utah’s solicitor general, declined to comment on whether the FTC is working with other states on similar actions.

Brown said the production and distribution of child sexual abuse material is “one of the most heinous crimes in our society” because it stays online for years.

He said the state’s action sends a message to those “who profit from the sexual exploitation of children … we will find you. We will hold you accountable.”