Juba, South Sudan,
June 18, 2021 – At least 34 women have sued adult content streaming site Pornhub on grounds of reaping profits from videos depicting sexual violence and allowing the footage on their repository in defiance of multiple requests to remove footage illegally obtained, including those of minors.
American media outlets reported Friday that layers representing the 34 plaintiffs accused one of the world’s leading adult content websites of providing a marketplace for child pornography, including other forms of non-consensual sexual content.
The lawyers demand that the Pornhub parent company MindGeek pays for the damages caused to complainants.
MindGeek, the controversial adult entertainment empire that runs Pornhub, was accused of being a “classic criminal enterprise” with a business model hinged on exploiting non-consensual sexual content.
“This is a case about rape, not pornography,” the complaint was quoted by an American media outlet, adding that the website is “likely the largest non-regulatory repository of child pornography in North America and well beyond.”
According to reports seen by Nyamilepedia, all the plaintiffs based in the U.S. and abroad sought anonymity with at least fourteen saying they were minors when they were filmed and should be considered “a victim of child sex trafficking”.
One of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, Mr. Michael Bowe, told CBS News the court could order MindGeek to pay hundreds of millions to his clients.
Ms. Serena Fleites, the only plaintiff to be named, alleged that in 2014 “a nude, sexually explicit video” that her boyfriend had coerced her to make when she was only 13 years old was uploaded to Pornhub without her consent.
The video remained online until the teen, posing as her mother, asked Pornhub to remove it. But they did not, the video remained online for several weeks within which the video was downloaded and reuploaded by several different users, with each video requiring a fresh request to remove it.
MindGeek also stands accused of operating a so-called “gaslighting campaign” online in a bid to discredit the victims, as well as making “threats of physical violence and death” against them.
Visa, one of the world’s largest payments processing companies, is also getting sued by the women for “knowingly” profiting from trafficking in providing merchant services to MindGeek.
PayPal has also reportedly suspended payment processing for the Pornhub parent company over the accusations of storing child pornography and other violent sexual content.
This development prompted both Visa and Mastercard to suspend processing payments for Pornhub in December, after a New York Times article accused the site of hosting illegal content, including child pornography and rape videos.
MindGeek runs over 100 pornographic sites, including Pornhub, RedTube, Tube8, and YouPorn, and sees some 3.5 billion visits each month according to the suit seen by journalists.
However, MindGeek, based in Montreal, described the accusation that it is running a “criminal enterprise” as “utterly absurd, completely reckless, and categorically false,” according to US media.
Pornhub garners 130 million visitors a day and has since denied all allegations of trafficking and announced a series of measures to combat illegal content.
