A graphic collage of different porn hub scenes all compiled together
ILLUSTRATION: JAMES MARSHALL
It was evening in Berlin and Alex Kekesi was surrounded by pornstars. Venus, the international adult entertainment convention, was underway, and Kekesi happened to be at dinner with several well-known creators when the discussion shifted to generative AI.
Kekesi listened as a few of the women shared similar stories from set. They expressed frustrations about their likeness being exploited. They talked of having to physically cross out language in their contract before filming. “Essentially it was, we’re gonna pay you for today’s stuff,” one woman said. “And then it’s a free-for-all after that. We can use this to create whatever we want.”
Kekesi empathized with the performers. It’s part of her job. As vice president of brand and community at Pornhub, the monstrously popular adult entertainment site, she puts in plenty of face time with creators, as well as fans of the platform, the press, and critics. Sometimes “that involves taking flack from them,” she told me over Zoom recently from her home office in Montreal. And there has been a lot of “flack” the past few years, even as she downplays Pornhub’s persistent troubles.
She was thrust into the role in 2023, following a particularly turbulent period for the company. On some level, Pornhub has always been controversial—it comes with the territory—but the problems of the platform in recent years represented an existential threat.
Rumblings began in 2019, when the owners of the GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys websites were charged in a sex trafficking conspiracy for deceiving and forcing women to perform in adult films, which they then uploaded online, including to platforms like Pornhub. In March 2020, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse urged the Department of Justice to open an investigation into Pornhub, citing incidents from “the past year,” including the GirlsDoPorn case. A New York Times column by Nicholas Kristoff that December brought even more attention to accusations that Pornhub hosted videos depicting sexual abuse, including of children. At first Pornhub denied any wrongdoing but reaction swiftly snowballed.
In Canada, where Pornhub is based, a parliamentary committee launched an investigation into the allegations. Visa and Mastercard suspended payment processing. Dozens of women sued Pornhub’s parent company, then called MindGeek and since renamed Aylo Holdings, alleging it had created and profited from a “bustling marketplace for child pornography, rape videos, trafficked videos, and every other form of nonconsensual content.” That lawsuit is still ongoing. Aylo also reached a deal with the US government last year, agreeing to pay a fine and install an independent monitor for three years in exchange for avoiding prosecution. In court, the company acknowledged that it had indeed made money off videos of sex-trafficking victims. There were other controversies, too: In 2022, Instagram banned Pornhub for violating its terms of service. (“We actually still don’t know to this day why we were banned” Kekesi says.) In 2023, the site was accused of illegally collecting user data in the European Union.
Pornhub has taken steps to address at least some of these problems. Following the Times article, it scrubbed the site of all “unverified content,” Kekesi said. Now anyone who wants to upload content to Pornhub has to not only verify their own identity; they also must supply proof of consent for everyone who appears in the scene, including documentation, IDs, and other paperwork. Pornhub also started issuing annual “transparency reports,” which it now does twice a year, publishing its content moderation practices. In 2022, the site introduced a chatbot intended to encourage people searching for child sexual abuse content to get help. Still, its lack of past oversight remained a hot topic—and a steady concern. In 2023, Aylo was acquired by Ethical Capital Partners, a Canadian private equity firm. “When they took ownership of the company, it really ushered in this new, I guess, era for Aylo—but I think for Pornhub, specifically—with a mandate very dedicated to transparency,” Kekesi said.
In the business of bodies and desire, everything has to be packaged just right for the fantasy to work. Presentation is what sells. Perfect lighting. Exact camera angles. Image also matters—just as much, it seems, if not more—to the companies behind your favorite x-rated content. At least, that’s the gist I got when I spoke with Kekesi.
To rebuild that trust—with creators, with users, with governments—Pornhub has leaned into a strategy of open communication. Kekesi was promoted from her previous role as marketing director to her current, more public-facing one (many sex-forward companies—Sniffies, for example—trot out executives in similar roles). “You know, because we’re from the adult industry, people—point blank—do not want to hear what we have to say,” she said. So the company launched Terms of Service, a podcast co-hosted by Kekesi and adult film star Asa Akira, to “set the record straight on things when it comes to Pornhub,” she said. Company ethics, moderation, sex worker rights; all of it is fair game on the show.
When I asked Kekesi if the previous ownership, capsized by a storm of allegations, had failed to be as open as they could, she didn’t hesitate. “Yes, there were obstacles,” she said.
Still, ongoing threats loom. Project 2025, the Republican playbook for a second Trump term, wants to criminalize porn nationwide. (Trump denied any connection to Project 2025 while campaigning, but he has been putting its authors forward for key government positions.) Already, twelve US states have instituted age-verification laws around porn consumption. Because PornHub doesn’t want to open itself to litigation under these new laws, it went on the offensive, blocking all access to its site in those states regardless of age. Kekesi said the company is in favor of the concept; it is “a good thing when it’s done properly.” Only, that’s not the case. “Look at how it’s happening now—it’s ineffective.”
In general, though, porn is more accessible than ever. Platforms like Onlyfans customize desire for a small fee. The riskier side of X operates in the vein of Backpage.com, where creators use the app to promote their work, engage with fans, and find gigs. That has also meant more competition for Pornhub. Kekesi never says it outright, but this is likely why the company has made a noticeable effort to appease the concerns of adult creators. “We are catching up and trying to be more visible and more present with the creator community,” she said. Netflix understood it. TikTok got it. The game is the game, no matter the industry. Healthy growth depends on original—and compelling—content, and Pornhub needs creators for that.
Quality is also a selling point in the era of generative AI, when depicting any fantasy could be just a few prompts away. Forecasting the next year, Kekesi said “moderation is the greatest place that we stand to win when it comes to AI.” Some creators have complained about the additional steps required to upload to Pornhub, Kekesi says, but she thinks the system is a success. “We were told over and over by different people—and competition—that that was the death knell. And we’ve proven otherwise.”
Pornhub’s brand reset—better transparency, stricter moderation and verification, creator-friendly—won’t entirely shift the conversation from where the company has fallen short. I wonder if it even matters. Negative public view didn’t hurt the company’s bottomline as much as public perception led many to believe. The company had an operating margin of 30 percent in 2022, according to Semafor.
Still, I admit, it’s a little silly to think that the second most visited porn site in the world wants you to like them—and more than that, to trust them—given that porn, for the consumer, has never really been about mass consensus but rather private satisfaction. But it’s the reason—one of many, anyway—Kekesi is everywhere these days. AVN, XBIZ, “all the trade shows,” she said. It’s about more than good press. To continue to compete, and to hold onto its dominance, most of all it needs the trust of creators, old and new. Without that, well, Pornhub’s next chapter is nothing more than a dream.