While pornography is easy to access on the web, its owners are not.
MindGeek is a Luxembourg-based conglomerate behind most popular porn websites on the internet, including Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn, and production companies, like Brazzers Digital Playground, and Reality Kings.
Among others, also include XTube.
MindGeek that was founded by Fabian Thylmann with the name Manwin, is later owned by a shadowy businessman who barely exists online. And this time, the company has decided to shut down XTube permanently on September 5.
This decision follows MindGeek's series of lawsuits, which came from many that claimed that its many porn websites are hosting illegal contents that include, and not limited to, rape, child sex abuse and revenge porn.
As controversial MindGeek can be, as it owns the most internet porn, it is reported that XTube is shuttering because MindGeek doesn't want to suffer more lawsuits.
According to MindGeek,:
Online pornography is among those that consume much internet traffic and create more than many carbon footprint, but is less governed and regulated.
There is no reliable measures to really protect vulnerable people from abuse.
A lot of women have suffered abuse and had their lives ruined because of the videos of them were shared without their consent on MindGeek-owned websites.
Steps have been taken against this.
For example, Pornhub has previously removed all unverified content after Visa and Mastercard blocked payments to the platform.
MindGeek's websites have contents that are user-generated. And the already made attempts aren't enough.
The shuttering of XTube is just another step towards making MindGeek a little less powerful, by giving the power back to the people.
With this, people hope that pornography sites can finally be held responsible for the content they host.
Read: Pornhub Bans 'Girls Do Porn': Steps Toward Stopping Online Sex Trafficking
XTube was founded in 2006. And because it was one of the first porn sites that allowed users to upload their own videos, the site has its own share of controversies.
Because at the time, XTube and some others were struggling because of copyright infringements, Fabian Thylmann acquired many of those websites at severely reduced prices, and built an empire on top of that.
In 2006, some 60 million viewers visited Thylmann’s porn sites each day. The revenues come from the pay pornography sites advertised alongside, and also from viewers registered.
As for MindGeek, which was originally called Manwin, was founded in 2010, when Thylmann acquired the assets of both Mensef and Interhub, owners of Brazzers, and the three-year-old Pornhub that later became the largest pornography site on the internet.
Manwin made its empire when when many industries have been disrupted by the internet.
Two years after it was founded, 80 percent of people who looked for online porn would land on one of MindGeek’s sites.
Read: Pornhub Better Moderation To End Non-Consensual And Child Sexual Abuse Material