A woman will now lead Pornhub’s public messaging as its parent company seeks to bounce back from dire allegations that the site enabled nefarious activity.
Ethical Capital Partners, which bought parent company of adult website MindGeek earlier this year, has named Alexzandra Kekesi as community and brand leader.
The move follows a series of public relations disasters, including allegations of publishing revenge porn and child sexual abuse, as well as being banned by Instagram for allegedly violating the social media site’s rules against sexual solicitation.
Long-time Pornhub employee Kekesi told the New York Post it focuses on “helping people really understand what Pornhub is as a brand, what we stand for, what we stand for”, including the site’s commitment to setting a “gold standard for moderation”.
“As soon as there’s someone who’s a little bit more visible in terms of being the one to engage with and it’s not just a faceless company or company, it makes it a little more inviting,” Kekesi told the publication.
Ethical Capital Partners, which bought parent company of adult website MindGeek earlier this year, has named Alexzandra Kekesi as community and brand leader
The move follows a series of public relations disasters, including allegations of publishing revenge porn and child sexual abuse.
Pornhub has been plagued for years with allegations that its site hosts revenge porn, child sexual abuse and victims of sex trafficking
Kekesi is one of the few Pornhub executives whose identity is known to the public.
Prior to taking on this new role, she worked for Pornhub’s parent company, MindGeek, for over a decade, starting in an entry-level marketing position for one of its affiliate sites before becoming a director. of Pornhub marketing.
As Community and Brand Manager, Kekesi will plan events such as the annual Pornhub Awards.
She is also set to host a podcast called ‘Terms of Service’ alongside adult film star Asa Akira which will tackle ‘censorship in the adult industry, arts and culture’. .
When it comes to sweetening the brand image, Kekesi might have their work cut out for them.
Pornhub has for years been plagued by allegations that its site hosts revenge porn, child sexual abuse and victims of sex trafficking. Pornhub has always denied any wrongdoing.
MindGeek, which has a daily audience of 130 million users on its sites, nearly collapsed in 2020 after the New York Times published a damning report about illegal content on Pornhub.
MindGeek, which has a daily audience of 130 million users on its sites, nearly collapsed in 2020 after the New York Times published a damning report into illegal content being served on Pornhub
Pornhub deleted millions of videos from its site and required all future uploaded content to be from verified users
Sarah Bain, a partner at Ethical Capital and the company’s vice president of public engagement, says Pornhub’s parent company remains a private company – which is why information about it remains scarce.
In response, Pornhub deleted millions of videos from its site and required all future uploaded content to be from verified users.
However, the Times report led Visa and Mastercard to deny the company some access to their payment systems.
Pornhub has also had its fair share of run-ins with state regulations.
The site blocked access to Utah users in May after the state imposed a law requiring users to verify they were over 18.
Last month, Pornhub left Virginia to protest a similar restriction law.
There isn’t much public information available about Ethical Capital Partners, the Canadian buyout firm that bought MindGeek.
Sarah Bain, a partner at Ethical Capital and the firm’s vice president of public engagement, told the Post that was simply because it was a private company.
“I don’t think we’re vague; I think we’re very clear – we’re a private company,” Bain said.
“We’re not interested in companies that have it all figured out,” Bain said.
“We want to work with companies that have lost their social license, have fairly significant regulatory requirements coming up, or have, in this case, a difficult social license history.”
She added: ‘At some point the adult industry will be normalized, it’s going to take a long time and it starts with being visible, open, talking, telling the public what we’re doing. This is how they become curious, this is how they become knowledgeable.
Bain confirmed that MindGeek CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Tassillo have yet to be replaced, following their resignation last summer, but did not comment further on the company’s hierarchy.
She argued that privacy is key because the leaders of the adult content site face unique risks, such as bad actors leaking their personal information such as home addresses or parents’ names.
