Notorious for revenge porn Operator of the notorious porn site xHamster unmasked

The people behind the porn site xHamster, notorious for its condoning of revenge porn, have now apparently been unmasked.

xHamster is one of the most popular porn sites in the world. It is currently the fourth most visited porn site in the world and is accessed more often in Switzerland than the websites of SBB or Swisscom. Yet xHamster has a miserable reputation, even for the porn industry.

In recent years, it has been widely reported that xHamster does not take decisive enough action against revenge porn, secretly recorded videos from public toilets and, in some cases, child pornographic material on its site.

However, it was previously unclear who operated the site, which was founded in 2007. People who are depicted on xHamster against their will have virtually no recourse. "Der Spiegel" and "Norddeutscher Rundfunk" have now tracked down the suspected people behind the site, two Russians living in Cyprus.

Letterbox companies conceal those responsible

The official operator of xHamster is Hammy Media Ltd, which is registered in the Greek part of Cyprus. However, according to the two media outlets' research, it is owned by Wisebits, another Cypriot company, via a network of letterbox companies. And its owners are Oleg Netepenko, who holds 90 percent of the Wisebits shares, and Dmitry Gusev, who owns the remaining ten percent.

Wisebits is based in a high-rise office building in Limassol in the south of the Mediterranean island. Almost 300 people are said to work at Wisebits. However, the company's managers will all have code names. Netepenko goes by "Tigus" and Gusev is the "Hawk". xHamster reacted angrily to questions from the journalists. An "Oleg R." described the research as illegal.