Over 30 women filed a lawsuit against Pornhub on Thursday for allegedly publishing nonconsensual content, including child pornography.
NBC News reports that the group of women filed the lawsuit against Pornhub’s parent company MindGeek, accusing it and its multiple pornography brands of violating federal sex trafficking laws, distributing child pornography, and other crimes. In the suit, the women allege that the company actively participated in the laundering and purchasing of illegal content, which they say have often been obtained through abusive methods, including human trafficking.
The suit alleges that MindGeek as a company used this illegal content to “become the dominant online pornography company in the world.” The suit was filed by Serena Fleites—who had child pornography of her distributed on Pornhub—and at least 30 Jane Does, all of whom say they were “Victimized first by their original abuser, and then repeatedly by the defendants in this case.” Fleites previously testified about her experience at Canada’s House of Commons, explaining how she ended up homeless and suicidal after videos of her when she was still a minor were uploaded to the site without her consent.
In a statement, Pornhub denied the allegations in the suit. "Pornhub has zero tolerance for illegal content and investigates any complaint or allegation made about content on our platforms," said the company. "The allegations in today's complaint that Pornhub is a criminal enterprise that traffics women and is run like 'The Sopranos' are utterly absurd, completely reckless and categorically false." It added that Pornhub has “the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history, which include the banning of uploads from unverified users, expanding our moderation processes, and cooperating with dozens of non-profit organizations around the world.”
After allegations Pornhub hosted user-uploaded instances of child abuse, the site removed all unverified content last year. The number of clips on the website was dramatically reduced as a result of the intiative, and a new verficiation process was introduced earlier this year. The announcement came after Visa and Mastercard launched investigations into business relationships with Pornhub, citing concerns the site might host illegal content. Mastercard has since banned payments with MindGeek, while Visa still processes some payments.
