Fake news reports about Pornhub stealing money from Mia Khalifa and redirecting the funds to Israel are going viral on social media, as misinformation about the Israel-Palestine conflict continues to spread online.
One video, edited with the MSNBC logo and dramatic music, says in bold letters overlaid on photos of Khalifa, “Mia Khalifa has lost her earnings from her videos on Pornhub. That’s how the porn star paid for her support of Hamas.”
Porn star Mia Khalifa's income frozen by PornHub and donated to Israel aid funds, due to her support of Hamas.... pic.twitter.com/3MGZRoTk8O
— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) October 15, 2023
The video goes on to claim that Pornhub donated the funds to Israel. It also includes a fake quote attributed to former Pornhub CEO Feras Antoon, saying that Pornhub showed the world “it is not just Americans who can take from Arabs and give to Jews.”
A spokesperson for Pornhub confirmed to 404 Media that the claims are false. The video and the claims in it are obviously fake if you’ve know anything at all about Khalifa, Pornhub, or can use your critical thinking skills about why there are no sources cited in it or the fact that MSNBC probably wouldn’t hack together a video with music and text effects this shitty, but there are more than 5 million views, 20.5 thousand likes, and 1,400 replies on the post as of writing, with many of them seeming to believed the claims.
Khalifa, a Lebanese-American media personality and former adult performer, has been outspoken about her stance on the crisis on several social media platforms. On October 7, she wrote in response to news of Hamas fighters attacking Israel, “Can someone please tell the freedom fighters in Palestine to flip their phones and film horizontal.”
The following day, Khalifa posted, “I just wanna make sure there’s 4k footage of my people breaking down the walls of the open air prison they’ve been forced out of their homes and into so we have good options for the history books that write about how they freed themselves from apartheid.”
After her posts, the CEO of Netherlands-based psilocybin company Red Light Holland responded that she was “fired effective immediately” from working as a consultant for the company.
This is such a horrendous tweet @miakhalifa. Consider yourself fired effective immediately. Simply disgusting. Beyond disgusting. Please evolve and become a better human being. The fact you are condoning death, rape, beatings and hostage taking is truly gross. No words can… https://t.co/ez4BEtNzj4
— Todd Shapiro (@iamToddyTickles) October 8, 2023
Playboy allegedly cut ties with Khalifa for her comments as well; Playboy has not replied to 404 Media’s request for comment, but I confirmed with a Playboy creator separately that the company sent creators an announcement that the company terminated its business relationship with Khalifa.
Given Khalifa’s celebrity status, combined with people’s willingness to believe all sorts of incendiary lies about the porn industry and Pornhub in particular, the claims are spreading in several other forms, as more posts, including popular Youtuber Keemstar’s “Drama Alert” account, and articles on questionable “news” websites.
The fact that a lot of people seem to believe obvious lies on social media never stops being disturbing, and in this case, it’s particularly depressing considering the speed at which misinformation about horrifying cruelty and conflict is spreading. Even without Pornhub’s confirmation that the claims aren’t real, a little critical thinking goes a long way: Videos of Khalifa produced by Bang Bros are still on Pornhub’s platform, but she hasn’t worked in the industry in years, and has talked publicly about regretting her time as an adult performer. Khalifa has also previously said that she does not make money on those Pornhub videos. Antoon stepped down from his role last year. Companies don’t just “redirect” funds earned by creators to foreign governments, and I’m no lawyer but it’s probably very illegal to do that in Canada, where Pornhub is based.
But false claims like these spread online because in a media environment where videos and images are posted at breakneck pace without being fact-checked and people are (understandably) emotionally and mentally exhausted, doing the extra five seconds of mental work to consider whether something is true or not is just too much for many.
