TAKEDOWN

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 victimssome as young as three years old. Readers 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) HUGE GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT: Laila has cultivated the #Traffickinghub movement, a diverse body of 2.3 million advocates, survivors, and organizations who signed her petition to shut down Pornhub, who are poised to show up for Takedown. HIGH PROFILE COVERAGE ACROSS THE AISLE: Takedown will be amplified across a range of media outlets. Since 2020, Mickelwait's activism has inspired high-profile coverage in outlets like The New Yorker and The New York Times--including Nicholas Kristoff's viral 2020 piece "The Children of Pornhub"--as well as conservative outlets like Tucker Carlson Tonight. FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT: The media has only portrayed MindGeek tycoons David Tassillo and Fabian Thylmann from a distance. Takedown is the most intimate account of the MindGeek saga yet, detailing Mickelwait's personal experiences with the shadowy figures behind the scandal. Author Bio: Laila Mickelwait is the Founder and CEO of the Justice Defense Fund and the Founder of the global #Traffickinghub movement supported by millions around the world. She has been combating the injustice of sex trafficking since 2006 and is a leading expert in the field.