Evidence of meeting #19 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was site.
A recording is available from Parliament.
2:40 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
I'm sorry if he misrepresented—
2:40 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Mr. Tassillo, you can maybe help me because you seem to provide more detailed answers. Mastercard said in a statement that they found evidence of “unlawful content”—their words, not mine. What was that content?
2:40 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
The content in question was actually something they deemed could potentially be depicting something that would be non-consensual. When we reviewed it, the content should not have made it on the site. It actually made it up through an edge case by making it through not only three of our softwares, but two other softwares that we actually had that were running against the databases. Since then, we've plugged it.
We understand, and it goes back to what we said: Even one example is too many, and that's why we constantly work to identify these edge cases and plug them, so they can never happen again.
2:40 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
In that same Globe article, they identify a user who did upload questionable content. When it was flagged to Pornhub by The Globe and Mail, the content was taken down.
When a verified account holder uploads problematic and harmful content, what happens to that account, and how does Pornhub and MindGeek confirm that the individuals—not the account holder—in that video are providing consent?
2:40 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
It goes back to the process of the upload that we were discussing before. When the compliance officers are running through the actual piece of material, they look for any sign of duress or anything that would insinuate that there is no consent. It would obviously be impossible to have “I consent to this video” before every single video when the content's being uploaded on the site, so we look for any signs that consent would not be available. If that were ever depicted, that's the type of content that wouldn't make it on the site. In the case of—
2:40 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
You don't require the account holder to actually confirm in writing that they have received—
2:40 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
We do. I was making reference to when you're actually watching the content in and of itself. At the time of upload it's explicitly asked that the person doing the upload has the consent of everyone in the video, and that everyone in the video is of legal age, which is 18. There might be places in the world where it's not 18, but we use a governing law of 18 irrespective of where the content's uploaded from.
2:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you.
We're going to turn now to Mr. Viersen for five minutes of questions.
2:40 p.m.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Antoon, about a year ago, the U.K. Sun and Times newspapers found dozens of illegal videos, and some had been on your site for more than three years. What do you have to say about that report?
2:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
Every time there are these kinds of reports, we reach out to the journalists and ask for more information to help us identify and remove the content. That journalist could easily have flagged that content with just one click of a button. They did not flag it. They did not submit the information to us. Today, if I don't have this information, I cannot say if it's correct or not.
2:40 p.m.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
Content that is deemed to be illegal is removed immediately.
2:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
Once flagged, the average for 2020, off the top of my head, was less than six hours.
2:40 p.m.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
On December 14, 80% of your content came down from your site. Is that correct?
2:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
I don't know about 80%, but yes, a large portion of unverified user-uploaded content was removed.
2:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
No. I said unverified uploaders. We have content today only from verified uploaders. The content we removed had been uploaded by people who were not verified.
2:40 p.m.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
Do you have a specific number on the amount of content that was removed?
2:45 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
It's in the ballpark of nine to 10 million. I don't have the exact number. It's not that we don't have it. Obviously, we have the precise number. We just don't have it on hand right now.
2:45 p.m.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
Why would you remove these nine million to 10 million videos if it was just conspiracy and untrue that there was illegal content on your site?
2:45 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
Once again I go back to what I told the committee before. This content was suspended. It hasn't been deleted. If there is anything, law enforcement is still able to ask for any piece of information on any one of those pieces of content.
It goes back to what we've been doing since the beginning as a company. We've always made every attempt to be the front-runners, the leaders in how social media platforms should work, and this was just one more step in our evolution. We're making it so that for everyone who uploads to our site, we basically have ID for them, so we know who they are and we can add further deterrents to their doing illegal activity. We hope people who are providing adult entertainment and any form of entertainment to people in the world will follow our lead.
2:45 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
Mr. Corey Price is an alias used by my colleague, Corey Urman. He uses it, basically, because he doesn't like—
2:45 p.m.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
Mr. Urman's on the call here.
Can you confirm this, Mr. Urman?
2:45 p.m.
Vice-President, Product Management, Video Sharing Platform, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
Yes, it's an alias I've used in public-facing statements.
2:45 p.m.
Conservative