Takedown

Inside the Fight to Shut Down Pornhub for Child Abuse, Rape, and Sex Trafficking

By: Laila Mickelwait

Narrated by: Laila Mickelwait

Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The gripping true story of one woman’s battle to expose and shut down a criminal online porn empire.

Pornhub was the 10th most visited site on the Internet, often praised as a progressive champion of women. Then one day, an activist discovered a secret they had been keeping from the world for over a decade: it was infested with child sexual abuse and rape videos.

Now for the first time, anti-trafficking expert and mother of two Laila Mickelwait tells the story of her battle against Pornhub’s billionaire executives and the credit card companies who helped them monetize the abuse of countless victims—some as young as three years old. Listeners will follow her from her first horrifying discovery of criminal content on Pornhub to closed-door meetings with credit card executives, White House and Justice Department senior officials, a powerful hedge-fund manager and more. Through insider accounts from Pornhub moderators and executives, you’ll meet the world’s first online porn tycoon, AKA “the Zuckerberg of porn,” along with Pornhub’s top brass (known internally as “The Bro Club”) who operate in secrecy.

The culmination of years of activism, Takedown is the true, never before told story of how Mickelwait mobilized a movement of two million people and together they accomplished "the biggest takedown of content in Internet history." (Financial Times)

©2024 Laila Mickelwait (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“The sinister Pornhub porn barons have met their match in Laila Mickelwait. This impassioned book gives eye-popping insights into the darkest corners of the internet and offers hope for the future.”—Edward Lucas, author, investigative journalist, former senior editor at The Economist

“In Takedown, Mickelwait gives us what every generation desperately needs: an honest, human story of how we can live our lives with a love that does not look away and a hope that does not give in. I could not put this book down.”—Gary Haugen, CEO and founder of International Justice Mission, author of Locust Effect

“Takedown is the thrilling and inspirational tale of Laila Mickelwait’s relentless leadership of the campaign against the dark empire of Pornhub. This story of triumph is a must-read for anyone who wants to make a difference.”—Gerald Posner, attorney, Pulitzer finalist, and author of Case Closed and God’s Bankers