this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2025
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as someone who used to work in the adult entertainment industry years and years ago Manwin/Pornhub was always known as the "McDonalds of Porn". You go there because you don't know any better and just want a quick session.
If you want niche stuff, truly amateur stuff, you'll go else where. So you're not wrong, there are a lot more places that simply ignore these rules. For the vast majority as long as they're following 2257 rules they couldn't give a rats ass about any other countries rules. Why? because most of the big payment processors i.e. places like CCBill, are in the US so it's more important to play by the US' rules than anywhere else so Affiliates and what have you can continue to be paid.
Interesting information, thank you for sharing
i'll have to find it, but there's a fascinating journalistic podcast about how pornhub's position as the tech giant of the porn industry happened effectively the same as every tech giant: not as a labor of love to advance something, but as a cold blooded disruption of a market to establish a new oligarchic overlord of a market sector. pornhub's position as an invasive species in the sex work ecosystem has made sex work far less humane than it was before. moreover, sex workers, given their complete lack of societal protection given our legal criminalization of their profession, are more vulnerable to the whims of a modern robber baron
As someone who witnessed them eating up ALL their competition first hand, you're right. They bought EVERYONE out. in my time in the adult industry I worked for 3 separate companies and Manwin bought them all. TWICE I was offered a job by them and to move to Montreal after being laid off from two companies that they bought and both times I turned them down simply because of their reputation within the industry.
One company I worked for was named Twistys/Pink Visual based in Toronto and they were bought by Manwin. A few people I know decided to move to Montreal to work at pornhub since they worked on Gaytube, SexTube, TrannyTube, etc and would be in charge of those sites at pornhub. They all moved back to Toronto within the spawn of a few months because it was a horrible place to work. Pornhub has always presented itself online as cool and hip to modern trends but behind the scenes it's anything but. I mean all the cool statistics and stuff they constantly present was built on the back of a guy from Tucson Arizona that worked for another porn company there that they bought. They promptly fired him after he essentially taught them his tools. Dude moved to Montreal from Arizona and everything. uprooted his family to move to Canada. He lasted maybe a year.
There was also a point where the adult actors were looking to unionize. It was largely spear headed by Sasha Grey. Manwin/Pornhub in part was very quick to squash that.