Pornhub parent company MindGeek is changing its name under new owners

MindGeek, Pornhub’s shady parent company, said it was changing its name as its new owners seek a “fresh start” for the scandal-ridden smut empire.

MindGeek – which has come under criticism in recent years for alleged content involving revenge porn, child abuse and sex trafficking victims – will be renamed “Aylo” ​​effective immediately, the company said.

The name “Aylo” ​​is likely to cause some headaches – but a company spokesman said the word was deliberately chosen because it had no meaning and couldn’t be found in the dictionary.

“We wanted a fresh start and we chose a name that gives us that freedom so our team and new owners can define it the way we want,” the company said.

The new branding and logo will be rolled out across all corporate communications and digital platforms.

Ethical Capital Partners, the Canadian buyout firm that bought MindGeek last March, said it decided to change the company’s name after meeting with employees and other “external stakeholders” who had expressed support for a renaming.

“We’ve heard from the team that it needs a fresh start,” Sarah Bain, vice president of public engagement at Ethical Capital, said in a statement.

“At the same time, ECP also committed to being more present in conversations that impact Aylo’s business and plans to correct information and public perceptions about the company, who it is and how it presents itself to the world,” added Bain added.

Ethical Capital Partners is in the midst of an extensive campaign to make Pornhub and its affiliates more palatable to the general public. Efforts included repeated public assurances from Ethical Capital officials regarding the company’s commitment to a “zero tolerance” policy toward illegal video.

As The Post reported earlier this week, Ethical Capital recently promoted Alexzandra Kekesi, former head of marketing at Pornhub, to a new role as community and brand leader.

Kekesi will lead the creative direction of the site and reach out to her network of porn stars. She will also oversee Pornhub, which is dealing with important public affairs, such as Instagram’s decision to permanently ban its account last fall.

Kekesi welcomed the renaming in a statement obtained by The Post.

“My colleagues and I are proud to work at Aylo and we are committed to building this brand as a technology leader,” said Kekesi. “Under this new banner, we will remain committed to our core values ​​of consent, freedom of sexual expression, authenticity, originality and diversity.”

In addition to Pornhub, the company’s portfolio includes several porn brands, including YouPorn, Brazzers, and Men.com. The company claims to reach a daily audience of 130 million users through its network of websites.

Prior to the rebrand, MindGeek had suffered a series of setbacks, including losing access to some Visa and Mastercard payment systems a scathing report from the New York Times in 2020 on the proliferation of illegal video content distributed via Pornhub and the impact of the crisis on affected victims.

When this report surfaced, Pornhub responded by removing millions of videos from the site.

Pornhub and its parent company have repeatedly denied wrongdoing when faced with allegations of hosting illegal content, despite beefing up content moderation tools on the site.

Aylo highlighted the various steps needed to protect users, including the requirement that all uploaded content comes from verified users and partnerships with “more than 50 non-profit organizations worldwide dedicated to combating child sexual abuse material.”

Last June, MindGeek CEO Feras Antoon and MindGeek COO David Tassillo resigned from their senior positions at the company about a week later the New Yorker released a sweeping shutdown of the company and the proliferation of non-consensual sex videos.

Bain told The Post that although the search is active, those positions have not yet been filled. MindGeek’s entire previous ownership group left the company as part of its acquisition by Ethical Capital earlier this year, she added.

So far, Ethical Capital has not wanted to reveal who is currently in charge of Aylo. Bain said there were multiple C-suite executives, including a chief financial officer and “a person who runs the company,” but declined to elaborate.

Other important questions, such as where Ethical Capital got the money to buy Pornhub and how much it paid, also remain unanswered.