(REVIEW) Over the past four years, PornHub — one of the most-visited sites on the internet — has faced a reckoning of epic proportions.

Headlines from as early as 2020 announced the removal of 80% of the site’s unverified content and identity verification requirements for performers — something PornHub had never required before.

This past January, the site announced it would require proof of consent from all performers. In March, it blocked access to Texas users because of state legislation that would require users to verify their age before viewing content on the site. (Texas isn’t the first state to receive one of these bans).

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Efforts spearheaded by sex-trafficking activist Laila Mickelwait are the reason behind this reckoning, recounted in her new book “Takedown: Inside the Fight to Shut Down PornHub for Child Abuse, Rape and Sex Trafficking.”

Mickelwait is an activist, not a journalist or writer of narrative nonfiction, so the book is at times somewhat clunky. Nevertheless, it remains an essential read, particularly for those who care about sex trafficking worldwide.

The events are laid out chronologically from Mickelwait’s point of view, interspersed with insight into her personal life. She describes her activism work alone and with others, including journalists and lawyers.

It began in 2020, with Mickelwait’s discovery that creators on PornHub could upload any video immediately with no verification whatsoever.

Mickelwait delved into several horrifying rabbit holes on the site that led her to the realization that, as she writes, “any homemade video on the site is a potential crime.” This realization sparked the beginning of the #Traffickinghub campaign, a social media movement intended to counter the altruistic branding PornHub once invested time into.

The book contains graphic descriptions of the videos Mickelwait found and was led to throughout the course of this work. They’re haunting and disgusting but necessary to drive home how harmful this content is — and how deep it goes. She describes child abuse, violent racism, abuse and even torture. Mickelwait treats the victims with unerring and total respect; it’s clear she’s sharing their tragic stories not out of a desire to exploit them, but rather to gather support for their cause.

In fact, she shares her mission at the beginning, calling on readers to share their stories and expertise with her to help continue the important work of sex trafficking advocacy. The book is untraditional in this way — rather than presenting herself as the end-all be-all expert, Mickelwait simply posits that she’s a trustworthy and devoted leader who’s open to collaboration from anyone.

The book, in some small ways, even serves as a how-to guide for activism — she explains her social media strategy and the way she spoke to public policy officials and company heads.

Following the advice of many to “follow the money,” Mickelwait took a journey that led her to investigations of PornHub’s former executives — some of whom are only classifiable as former because of Mickelwait’s work. She began partnering with other advocacy organizations like Exodus Cry, a Christian organization that works to abolish all sex work alongside illegal sex trafficking.

Mickelwait emphasizes that she will happily work with any individual or organization despite their political leaning, religious belief or otherwise, but she shares how her personal faith grew and changed over the course of this journey.

At an all-time-low, she reached for her Bible and opened it to a random page, where the passage described exactly what she was going through. It was uncanny and eventually led her to the realization that “there was something beyond me, present with me in my darkest moments.” 

She also began working with journalist Nicholas Kristof, who published the article “The Children of Pornhub” in December 2020. The article shook the foundations of PornHub, and a great deal of unverified content was removed — 80% of the site’s total content, equal to over 10 million videos.

Throughout, Mickelwait describes the relationships she formed with young victims, detailing how she and lawyer Michael Bowie helped these girls get their illegal and harmful content taken down when PornHub dragged its feet. She supported them through other stages of life and became a mentor figure for them. These relationships, she writes, are the reason why she was able to keep going despite doxxing, death threats and more:

“This fight for justice isn’t just about a website and pixels on a screen. It’s about real, living, breathing, feeling human beings. People who have been severely harmed by those who abused them and by the men running this website that is immortalizing their trauma.”

The latter half of the book focuses on Mickelwait’s efforts to have major credit card companies Visa, Mastercard and Discover cut ties with PornHub, a venture that has at last been successful. After a great deal of arduous back and forth, aided by her connection with the billionaire activist Bill Ackman, the three companies have now refused to process payments for the subscription service Pornhub Premium or ad revenue from its partner TrafficJunky.

This has dealt another huge blow to the site, one that was a goal of Mickelwait’s from the very start.

She still believes the work isn’t finished, however, and says in a letter to readers that closes out the book, “We aren’t giving up the fight to shut down Pornhub, and I hope you will join me and so many others who are still pressing ahead. We are so close.”

Jillian Cheney is Religion Unplugged’s Senior Culture Correspondent. She writes about film, TV, music, art, books and more. Find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.