Verified information from that period documented thousands of such uploads including assaults captured on hidden cameras or while victims remained incapacitated with no awareness or ability to consent. The platform profited directly from ad placements around this material as well as premium subscriptions and pay per view options reaching billions of views annually across its global user base. This model allowed anonymous uploaders to submit footage without meaningful checks for consent or age turning the site into a hub for exploitation that generated hundreds of millions in revenue each year before the financial cutoff took effect.
The operation functioned through minimal oversight from the platform operators who prioritized engagement metrics over safety protocols. Uploaders submitted raw amateur videos that frequently showed women and girls appearing drugged or passed out with no resistance or awareness during the acts. Algorithms then promoted the content to maximize viewer time and ad impressions which numbered nearly three billion each day. Revenue flowed steadily through major credit card processors while the company faced little immediate accountability for the harm inflicted on those featured without their knowledge or permission. Executives at the parent company maintained this approach for years even as reports of nonconsensual material accumulated.
Sustained advocacy efforts eventually shifted the financial landscape in a decisive way. Campaigns led by activists including Laila Mickelwait gathered more than two million signatures worldwide and highlighted the scale of the violations through direct evidence shared publicly. Lawsuits filed by victims combined with widespread calls for reform led the payment processors to review the platform and terminate access after confirming violations of their policies against unlawful content. The decision in December 2020 triggered an immediate loss of revenue and prompted the removal of more than ten million videos in a short span. This outcome illustrated how targeted economic measures could compel changes that internal moderation had failed to deliver for an extended period.
Despite those reforms at Pornhub similar patterns of abuse persist across other platforms today raising fresh concerns about the ongoing vulnerabilities in the industry. A detailed investigative probe uncovered a porn site that receives over 60 million visits each month and focuses on thousands of videos featuring women who appear unconscious during sex acts. Most of its users are based in the United States. It is home to so called sleep content with hundreds of thousands of views. One popular hashtag is eye check a way of proving a woman is asleep.
Last year we began investigating a porn site that gets over 60 million visits a month focusing on the thousands of videos featuring women who appear unconscious during sex acts. Most of its users are based in the US. It is home to so called sleep content with hundreds of thousands of views. One popular hashtag is eye check a way of proving a woman is asleep. We created a fake name and soon got into a private Telegram group dedicated to sharing sleep content with almost a thousand members. One day a man in the group we are calling Piotr not his real name DMed me.
Piotr admitted to me that he had been crushing pills into his wife’s drink to rape her in her sleep. It has made me even more determined to try and meet him to get him in person. We worked out that Piotr lived in Poland and he let slip that he was planning to attend a party with his wife. That is him I recognize him. We could not approach Piotr’s wife without potentially putting her in danger so we reached out to police about our findings. We asked both Motherless and Telegram for comment but did not receive a response.
— Saskia Van Dorn, CNN investigative correspondent (Paris)
The investigation ultimately circled back to the human cost exemplified in high profile cases of nonconsensual assault.
In the end it all comes back to Giselle Pellicot. With astonishing dignity she has taken hold of her own harrowing experience. Gentlemen think of your mother think of your sister think of your daughter when you do this. Is there ever a moment when you tell yourself what I am doing is truly a criminal act. And be careful because one day maybe you will be caught and one day the women you are doing this to will wake up and report you.
— Giselle Pellicot, victim advocate speaking on the record
The broader lesson from these interconnected cases remains urgent and unresolved. Financial pressure delivered results against one major platform but the underlying demand for nonconsensual material requires ongoing vigilance and systemic safeguards such as universal verification standards enforced across all sites. Victims like those captured in the videos and those who have stepped forward publicly deserve policies that prioritize prevention over reaction after the fact. Continued focus on the human impact ensures that accountability extends beyond any single site and addresses the networks that enable such violations wherever they emerge including private groups and lesser known platforms that continue to operate with limited scrutiny.
