Do we like Mia Khalifa?
Our score: 6 out of 10. Big charity and a long, public fight over how she was treated, set against crude jokes and a post about the October 7 attack that cost her work.
Mia Khalifa grew up in Lebanon and moved to the US as a child. She has said she was the only Middle-Eastern girl at her school and copped the nickname “the terrorist”. She made her adult videos at 21, over about three months, and then spent years being defined by them.
She has told the story of that time as one of being used. She says she signed her contract in front of a room of older men, owns none of the content, and earned about £9,000 before tax. In 2020 BangBros sent her a cease-and-desist over what it called defamatory statements about the company. We found no lawsuit, ruling or settlement.
On the harm test, the stains are crude rather than campaigns. In 2015 she shared Instagram posts mocking Caitlyn Jenner, and fans accused her of being transphobic in the comments. Six years later she gave more than $10,000 to For The Gworls, a group that helps Black trans people with rent and gender-affirming procedures. Nothing we found shows her campaigning against LGBTQ+ people, and we found nothing from her on vaccines or climate.
The October 2023 stoush is the big one. After the Hamas attack on Israel she posted asking someone to tell “freedom fighters in Palestine” to film horizontally, then deleted it. Playboy cut ties, citing “disgusting and reprehensible comments”. She said the post was not meant to encourage violence and that “freedom fighters” meant Palestinian civilians. Where you land depends on whether you read it as mocking the attack or as clumsy, angry commentary.
A year later, a video of hers mocking US service members racked up millions of views on X, and Fox News ran it as a pile-on. Fox did not report a reply from her. In April 2026 she posted an emotional video about Israeli strikes on Lebanon, which TMZ reported she called terrorism and war crimes. Israel's side, as reported, is that it targeted Hezbollah-linked positions. Fans and critics split hard on it.
So: not a villain, not a saint. The jokes and posts are the kind of thing a mate might wince at rather than a pattern of targeting groups. The generosity and the long fight for control of her own image are what the record mostly shows. She passes on nice, and on harm it's a close call because of those posts.