WASHINGTON — The Washington Post published this weekend a lengthy feature about Pornhub and Aylo, focusing on Ethical Capital Partners’ VP of Compliance Solomon Friedman’s keynote address and other appearances at XBIZ Los Angeles in January.
Washington Post writer Hallie Lieberman — who also attended the event — referred to XBIZ Los Angeles as “one of the biggest porn conferences in the world,” educating the mainstream readership of the U.S. capital’s newspaper of record about the scope of the adult industry trade gathering.
Last year, Lieberman explained, Friedman “co-founded a private equity firm to purchase MindGeek, the parent company of Pornhub, one of the largest porn streaming and entertainment sites in the world. He attended XBIZ to introduce himself to a skeptical audience whose livelihoods were initially wrecked by the site’s free content offerings.”
The Post feature described Friedman wearing “rooster-printed socks peeking out from his New Balance sneakers“ and standing by the water dispensers at the bar of XBIZ LA’s homebase, the Kimpton Everly Hotel, “figuring out his place in all of this,”
For Friedman, Lieberman notes, “porn isn’t the problem. It’s just that it peels away social niceties to reveal the human condition.”
“Pornography is a mirror and reflects society back at itself,” Solomon told the reporter. “So when people complain about porn, it’s like looking in the mirror, being unhappy and saying, ‘I gotta smash that mirror.’”
The article also includes interviews with Pornhub VP of Community and Brand Alex Kekesi and exec Sana Gaziani, both of whom also attended XBIZ LA.
Ultimately, Friedman and the Aylo crew felt very welcome by the industry stakeholders at XBIZ LA. The conference “went better than expected,” he told Lieberman on its final day. “This is a tough industry, but being here re-energized me. You meet the real human beings.”
To read “Can Pornhub Be Ethical?” visit WashingtonPost.com.