Pornhub sued over videos of rape, child and revenge porn

Pornhub sued over videos of rape, child and revenge porn

Nearly three dozen women have filed a lawsuit accusing Pornhub of profiting off of videos posted online without their consent which featured rape, revenge porn and child pornography. 

The 138-page lawsuit against Pornhub's parent company Mindgeek was filed on behalf of 34 unnamed women in California state court on Thursday. 

Of the 34 women, 14 were underage when the nonconsensual videos were uploaded and another 14 were victims of convicted sex criminals. They live throughout the US and in the UK, Colombia, Thailand and Canada. 

Isabella - a fake name used to protect her identity - said she was only 17 and in high school when her boyfriend coerced her into making a nude video later uploaded to Pornhub. 

Michelle - another fake name used for protection - was 15 when she was victimized by a man convicted of blackmailing children to sexually abuse themselves on camera.  

The lawsuit accuses Mindgeek of crimes including racketeering, typically associated with gangs and mobs, and damages could be in the hundreds of millions.

Mindgeek 'is also one of the largest human trafficking ventures in the world. And it is likely the largest non-regulatory repository of child pornography in North America and well beyond,' the lawsuit states. 

'This is a case about rape, not pornography. It is a case about the rape and sexual exploitation of children.' 

Mindgeek, which owns and operates more than 100 pornographic websites, purposely doesn't monitor what's being uploaded and there's no process to remove content 'that was exploitive and illegal,' the lawsuit states. 

In a separate federal lawsuit against Mindgeek, which was filed in February and contains very similar allegations, a Pornhub Senior Community Manager said in a Reddit post that age verification would be a 'disaster' for Pornhub because it 'costs us money to verify' and would result in a 50 percent reduction in traffic.

 

 



 

 

-->