Laila Mickelwait : Take Down

[Alejo]

Hey guys,

I wasn't sure where to post this, and I thought about posting it on the books section as her book just came out, but she seems to be making the rounds as the person who initiated the exposure of PornHub and their awful practices which allowed monetizing abuse.

I just watched her interview with Theo Von that I think is worth checking out, but from her website she has been interviewed by several people as she promotes her book.

What she reveals about the way that industry works is rather sickening and I think it could probably be featured in SOTT. You may or may not like Theo Von's style, I'm not a big fan, although I did enjoy his interview with Trump a bit better than the one Joe Rogan did, she's very articulate and well spoken. I will be checking out her book.

 

[987baz]

Yeah I saw a clip from the interview yesterday, she seems very articulate and passionate about exposing the disgusting practices.. I found it interesting that they took down 80% of the content at one point because they couldn’t verify ages and consent, and then rebranded the owning company calling themselves ethical something or other, what a joke! Apparently there are multiple law suits going on and one can only hope they win, as that’s really what they don’t like, imo they couldn’t care less about exploitation, they just want to make money, not that it’s that surprising.

 

[Alejo]

And how they are attempting to fight the legal efforts to force them to verify age by saying that "they care about privacy" is beyond insulting when you consider everything they allowed to go on.

I applaud her effort, and I think it's positive that at least a conversation is taking place, but I also realize that these massive corporations are slippery, they can shut down one website and it'll simply pop up elsewhere under a different name, registered in a different country.

 

[Alejo]

I just finished her book this week, and the book is simple, kind of a straight forward story but it hits hard!

I have read several books on criminals, from FBI profilers and police officers, and they all have a way to hit you in a very chilling way that leaves a mark on you, on several levels. This one though, despite the simplicity of the story was somehow a lot darker. I was left with the sensation that this planet is so full of darkness, a lot more than most of us realize.

The basic story of the book is, PornHub profits from every piece of content on their website by monetizing clicks and visits on each page, so far so good. And the author has no problem, and I agree with her on principle, that two consenting adults producing a scene for profit, well... that's their business. What that does to society, it's a different conversation.

And perhaps most people believed that such content is what was exclusively found at pornhub, and Pornhub did nothing to correct that notion. When on looks just a bit deeper, the amount of content uploaded by users is far greater than the one produced by adult content creators. But this content was by and large, illegal. Full of abuse of a really dark sort, some of the things the author describes as seeing were just truly dark. And that's the first take away from the book, it's criminality at a whole new level, it's the attempt of a creature to harm someone forever. To commit a crime and then upload it to a public site for consumption, downloading and sharing the world over. It's cruel to a whole new level.

The second part of that darkness is the legal battle, which the book focuses on, Pornhub, when made aware of this situation did absolutely nothing, attacked whistleblowers and victims, had no intention of ever getting rid of any content and denied accusations and so on. But it's the nature of the crime, I think there's crimes and crimes, a bank laundering drug money is awful but a site owner fighting to maintain not just illegal content, but torturous content live on their website, blackmailing the very victims on that content is another level altogether, for what it does to the victim, and what it maintains on whoever consumes that content.

But then, some of these executives took their money, which makes sense but I hadn't considered, and invested in real estate, luxury apartments, and other businesses, and it struck me at some point, these guys were not just making money from the exploitation of torture and abuse, but also from selling/renting living arrangements for people who would probably oppose their endeavors openly.

And so did the credit card companies, which is a big focus of the book as well.

So, despite the simplicity of the narrative, this book left me feeling that this world is truly dark.

I would recommend her book, I think everyone should read it, whether you've consumed or haven't consumed porn at any point in your life, hate it or enjoy it. It's a book about a porn company, but the implications are far grander.

 

[Meg]

Laila Mickelwait is a hero in my book. I haven't read the book yet, but given what she discusses in the above interview and the implications of the Epstein 'files', it's no wonder to me why the Cathars wouldn't bring children into this world. When I first read about that, I thought that was a bit severe. Now, not so much. I am so glad it's being exposed for all the world to see. Bravo Laila!