Trailer for the docu "Tefek Discoverer: The Story of Farnhab" (Netflix)
In 2014, the Canadian company MindGeek, the operator of the site PornHub, launched a brilliant marketing campaign - a creative competition for the "suitable for the office" campaign, or in other words: create a slogan that would promote us as a porn site without saying that we are a porn site.
The result was amazing - dozens of ads by brilliant creators brought a wide bastard smile on the faces of many men and quite a few women.
The most visible secret on the globe has been shifted from the margins straight to the center.
Everyone consumes porn, and now the admission of this is in public.
Pornhub, which even before was the most popular and well-known site in the sector, has become a generic term for porn consumption, similar to brands such as Jeep, Frigidaire or Vespa.
These were the best days of Furnahub, which generated hundreds of millions of dollars a year, but as in any case where a super brand gains momentum and moves to the center stage, here too the less beautiful sides of the product were exposed.
In the case of Pornhub, it's not just image damage, but the biggest taboo in online culture: child pornography and human trafficking for sex.
The docu "Money Shot: The Pornhub Story", which recently appeared on Netflix, examines the complex relationship and fragile boundaries of the porn industry with law and morality.
In the first third of the 94-minute film, the rise of Fornhub and its establishment in the mainstream space is presented in an amusing way, the second third focuses on the New York Times investigation from 2020, in which the publicist Nicholas Christoph published an article called "Fornhub's children", in which he revealed how the site not only allows the publication of videos Minors and other non-consensual videos, but also raking in handsome profits.
The last third discusses the question of who is more affected by the phenomenon - the minors themselves or the people in the industry, the creators of the content (name washed, I know), whose livelihoods were affected by the sanctions against Fornahub following the investigation.
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The big picture fades and fades.
"Tefek Discoverer: The Story of Furnhab" (Photo: Netflix)
If this symmetry seems like an injustice to you, you are right, but here it is necessary to dwell on the matter of "sex industry workers".
Before your lips raise a laugh about the issue, it is indeed a legitimate question.
For quite a few in the population, the distribution of porn in itself, no matter what kind, is a crime, and this entire industry should be closed with a lock and the key thrown into the sea.
But the reality is much less clear-cut - this is an industry with a huge demand (more than a billion dollars a year in the US alone), from which many earn a living honestly and by agreement. Is it moral? To each his own, but on a legal level there is nothing problematic about a sex worker who financed the purchase of Apartment through a platform that allows it to do this, and through clearing systems that allow the customers' credit cards to go through. From the point of view of the law, there is no difference, for the purpose of the discussion, between chatting with a star who will rate your penis and buying a shirt at Asus.
The problem starts with videos that are considered virtual rape for all intents and purposes, and from the fact that Fornahab does not remove them, despite repeated requests and pleas from the subjects.
When such a crime is legitimized by large credit companies, a very dangerous domino effect is created.
Only after the investigation did Visa and Mastercard stop their activities with Mindgeek and basically forced it to reduce 80 percent of the content on Fornahub.
Yes, the earners were also hurt, but is that the story here?
Is the discussion equivalent to harming those minors or women who suffered revenge porn, a subject that Netflix touched on in "The Most Hated Man on the Internet"?
The answer, of course, is negative, but the creator of the docu, Susan Hillinger, goes so far between the drops and makes an effort to present a balanced picture that reflects all aspects, that she does an injustice to the overall picture.
The result is a very basic product that doesn't innovate too much.
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Proof of the desire to create more identification with the stars of the site.
"Tefek Discoverer: The Story of Furnhab" (Photo: Netflix)
The general impression that emerges from "Megla Tapeh" is that there is some chance that legitimate porn sites on the Internet (not including the dark net channels that carry particularly extreme dangers) will block the way for pedophiles.
The reality, of course, could not be further.
Already in 2015, five years before the article in the New York Times, 743 legal porn sites were discovered that "hidden" hidden paths to prohibited content.
In 2021, there were 29 million reports of child pornography content.
Although the film emphasizes that the phenomenon continues, especially on social networks, its very focus on pornhub alone and on the interviewees who declare that they will put an end to the phenomenon misses the mark.
Hillinger removed this hot potato from the heat but preferred not to touch it with her bare hands.
With all the empathy for the livelihood of Asa Akira, Siri Dahl and Gwen Adora, the fact that they occupy such a prominent place in Doku is proof of the desire to generate more identification with the known stars and turn "Megla Tapeh" into a pop item and nothing else.
If it was a lighthearted docu about the fun sides of the porn industry and behind the scenes of PornHub it would pass.
The problem is that it comes at the expense of a more extensive and appropriate treatment for the people affected by the exposure, those who will carry the hump on their backs for the rest of their lives.
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