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.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
Yes, that's correct. It's always been this way.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Okay.
In your terms of service, which I read through, it says very clearly that it does not allow users to “post any Content that depicts any person under 18 years of age (or older in any other location in which 18 is not the minimum age of majority) whether real or simulated”.
That's in your terms of service. Is that correct?
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
I will take it for granted that you're reading the current version, but yes.
February 5th, 2021 / 2:15 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
We don't want anyone under 18. That's correct.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Obviously, there are situations that have arisen and we know child sex exploitation is an issue across the world, whether it's in human trafficking or other shape or form. It's not just an issue with Pornhub or MindGeek or whatever entity of the complex structure you guys have in place, but it's an issue across the world.
But you folks have a very special responsibility to either stop as best as you can having this content being posted or, if it does get through whatever filters you have—and in my personal view the filters were not as robust as they should have been, if I can use that language, were not as strong as they should have been—you then have a duty to remove that material. This is because when that material was posted—and you were talking about the U.S. material that's generated—you should have known, you should be able to verify before the content is posted who these individuals are, and if you can't verify it without a driver's licence or without any sort of ID, you shouldn't post it.
Is that not a fair statement?
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
Thank you, Mr. Sorbara.
In a purely linear world, yes, that is a fair statement. However, this is not an issue...and I commend you on your understanding of the way the Internet works, seeing that it is a global issue and not just a single isolated issue to MindGeek. If we were to put those practices into place today, it wouldn't stop the problem; it would just have it move to other places. Everyone has to work together to get to a solution with this.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
You've thrown out some numbers. You said that 14 million Canadians will visit the site today, and you have every single one of those IP addresses. You know that every platform, whichever one you want to name out there, knows its users better than we know ourselves. You have all that information out there. It's your duty and your responsibility as citizens, as business folks and as individuals who have a moral compass—because we all have a moral compass—to ensure your business practices do the right thing. That's where I'm coming in.
I understand your business. We get it. We get what's out there on the Internet in this digital world. We're here digitally. We get that, but you guys have failed, in my view, in terms of your filters and your ability to respond to concerns that have been put to you by minors, because in no way should that content be on the Internet. We don't want it on the Internet, and it shouldn't be on your site. You have 1,800 employees who work for you—1,000 in Montreal and 800 in Europe. In no way should that content get onto your site.
In terms of your structure, why is your headquarters in Luxembourg?
Chief Executive Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
As I said, the majority of shareholders for the last 10 years were European nationals and European residents. That's why it's been there since March 2010.
Liberal
Chief Executive Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
I don't know off the top of my head, because we restructure once in a while. We use third party companies that give us advice. The structure is not complex, to be honest. It's just that we have many products, and the structure is built on the advice of third party professionals.
Liberal
Chief Executive Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
We used to have one in Ireland many years ago, and now we've closed that.
Liberal
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Your Canadian entity, is it a flow-through structure? Where do the revenues flow through, through Canada or offshore?
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
I'm going to be honest with this; I'm really not the accountant behind it. What I can confirm right now is that this is a legacy structure from the previous owners, who were European, and when the new ownership came into play in 2013, it was just carried on and the individuals—Feras and I as minority shareholders and the majority shareholder being a non-Canadian resident—continued the structure moving forward. We bought the majority of the entities underneath.
Conservative
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Mr. Chair, I have some follow-up questions. If there is time at the end, please place me on the list.
Liberal
Han Dong Liberal Don Valley North, ON
I think my colleague Mr. Sorbara's question was with regard to the financial flow, and my earlier request.... I would like that to be added to the list of requests, because this is very important. We are talking about a company that's making hundreds of millions of dollars on the back of—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you, Mr. Dong. I did indicate to committee members that we will have a discussion about documents we've requested at the end of the meeting.
Madame Gaudreau, we'll turn to you.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Can you confirm that I have two minutes and 30 seconds, Mr. Chair?