BangBros, an adult film production company, announced on Thursday, August 29, 2019, that it acquired PornWikiLeaks.com, a website known for publishing personal information about adult performers. The acquisition was made with the stated intention of permanently shutting down the site and removing all associated data.

Acquisition and Shutdown

BangBros, whose sites include Bang Bus and MILF Soup, purchased PornWikiLeaks.com, including its data-filled hard drives and domain. Following the acquisition, BangBros replaced the site's content with a message on the homepage explaining the change. A BangBros spokesman confirmed the purchase to AVN on August 29, 2019, at 8:16 PM, stating that the company took possession of all hard drives containing sensitive and personal information and was in the process of disposing of them.

The message posted on the former PornWikiLeaks.com homepage addressed "fellow industry peers," acknowledging that "once it’s on the internet, it’s forever." It described PornWikiLeaks as a resource for "hate, lies, and sensitive information," noting that over 15,000 performers' real names were listed on the site. Some entries also included phone numbers, addresses, and family members' names. The statement emphasized that this information was not voluntarily submitted but "stolen from anyone that had it posted."

BangBros stated its intention was to shut down the site and remove all associated information, asserting, "There’s no catch. No hidden thing to getting your personal stuff off of it. We simply didn’t want it out there for the world to see anymore." The company acknowledged that shutting down the site would not "purge the internet of all possible ties to real names," but it would make it "one less place to harbor and find these things easily."

Data Destruction and Content Removal

Upon visiting the former PornWikiLeaks.com URL, users now see the mission statement from BangBros and a link to a YouTube video. This video reportedly shows someone pouring flammable fluid onto a pile of hard drives and setting them on fire, illustrating BangBros' method of data disposal. An inside source confirmed that the video depicts the destruction of the real PornWikiLeaks hard drives and any backups.

The statement on the site also noted the disappearance of a forum that had "300,000 posts on it, most of them negative and hate-filled." Another source cited the forum as having 100,000 posts. BangBros assured that "If you had anything ever posted on here, it will be removed and deleted forever from here." The company also confirmed its ownership of the domain, stating, "Nothing will ever be up here besides this page that you see now. So you don’t have to worry about it coming back either."

In addition to the site's shutdown, its archive has been excluded from The Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine removes any site's content from its archive at the owner's request.

Industry Context and Impact

PornWikiLeaks.com was described as a site dedicated to doxxing adult industry performers and sharing their personal details online. This included real names, family information, addresses, and phone numbers of over 15,000 members of the adult industry. The site has been cited in court documents for the Girls Do Porn case, which went to trial the week prior to the acquisition. In that case, 22 women claimed that the production company Girls Do Porn misrepresented how their videos would be distributed, leading to their films being posted online and subsequent doxxing on PornWikiLeaks by viewers.

BangBros' statement concluded by reflecting on the adult industry, noting that it "has weathered a lot and at the end of the day we rely on each other more than we think." It acknowledged competition within the industry but asserted that "making enemies doesn’t make us a stronger company. Treating others well and innovating does." The company presented its action as an "innovation" that "hopes to make the internet a little bit better for all of us involved."

Key Facts

  • BangBros acquired PornWikiLeaks.com on Thursday, August 29, 2019.
  • PornWikiLeaks.com was a site known for doxxing adult industry performers, listing over 15,000 real names, and sometimes including phone numbers, addresses, and family names.
  • BangBros purchased the site with the stated purpose of shutting it down and removing all associated information.
  • The acquisition included the site's domain and hard drives containing sensitive data, which BangBros confirmed were destroyed.
  • The former PornWikiLeaks.com homepage now displays a message from BangBros and a video showing the destruction of hard drives.
  • The site's forum, which contained a significant number of posts, has been removed, and its content has been excluded from The Wayback Machine.