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'Money Shot: The Pornhub Story': Docu covers most bases but fails to address some critical questions

Netflix's latest documentary follows the fall of the infamous porn site and the people who were most affected in the aftermath
PUBLISHED MAR 15, 2023
Porn actress Gwen Adora stars in 'Money Shot: The Pornhub Story' (Netflix)
Porn actress Gwen Adora stars in 'Money Shot: The Pornhub Story' (Netflix)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The documentary, 'Money Shot: The Pornhub Story', directed by Suzanne Hillinger and produced by Alex Gibney's Jigsaw Productions, touches on important facts about how porn is produced and consumed, particularly how technology has helped to obliterate or at least blur the line between the amateurs and professionals. Nonetheless, the focus of the documentary was primarily on how Pornhub, the biggest pornographic website in the world, was mired in controversy after being accused of aiding child sex trafficking and abuse.

Hillinger focuses on how Pornhub changed digital marketing, gave independent performers a big boost, and, through its greed and ignorance, allowed thousands of unlawful videos to be posted on its platform.

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The future of the porn industry 

In a New York Times opinion piece, 'Children of Pornhub', Nicholas Kristof demanded more content moderation, a ban on downloads and a rule that only verified users could post videos. He also demanded that businesses that work with Pornhub, particularly payment card providers, discontinue its commercial relations, which seemed like a strong form of a boycott. Most of them bowed to pressure from the public. Yet, the documentary makes the point that Pornhub's sex workers were the biggest victims of it. Even though the documentary was able to voice out the opinions of many on the subject matter, it didn't touch any critical questions. The question of whether Pornhub, OnlyFans or even Facebook, are publishers or platforms, is never addressed. Should they be held accountable for the content they host if they make money from it or not? 

The future of the porn industry as of now seems very hazy with the numerous safety and regulatory concerns with the internet. As mentioned in the documentary, “This isn’t a porn problem, it’s an internet problem.”

Documentary lacks a crucial conclusion 

The conclusion of pornography-related documentaries typically fall into one of two categories: One, porn is actually a sex-positive celebration of sensuous pleasure or second, porn is actually a cruel enabler of rape. However, one gets the impression that the ambiguous Pornhub documentary by Hillinger is unsure of what its selling point should be. The movie demonstrates that Pornhub's so-called moderators had to watch close to 1,000 movies every day and were unable to adequately control the material. It also demonstrated that some of Pornhub's staunchest critics were far-right Christian preachers who only want to outlaw pornography and all sex outside of marriage. Through the various interviews with the performers and anti-Pornhub advocates, the documentary is able to bring forward issues that occurred after the aforementioned NYT piece gained traction. In the end, the documentary fails to provide a more substantial conclusion of what the entire movement has led to.

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