The plaintiffs claim that Pornhub makes money off of videos of their rapes. The parent company Mindgeek is a “classic criminal company” and even earns money from films of sexual violence against children.
“This is about rape, not pornography,” says a US lawsuit against the pornographic platform Pornhub and its parent company Mindgeek. 34 women filed the civil lawsuit on Thursday through their attorney in California. They all accuse the platform of having posted and monetized videos of rape or other forms of sexual violence against them.
The video posted by her ruined her life, said an anonymous plaintiff. Of the 34 women, only one is currently using her real name. Serena Fleites says she found out in 2014 that a “sexually explicit nude video” landed on Pornhub without her consent. Her boyfriend would have pushed her to do the clip when she was only 13. Pornhub only removed him after she posed as her mother. Since then, it has been uploaded again and again by different people.
Overall, 14 of the 34 plaintiffs said they were minors, like Fleites in the videos seen on Pornhub. All together, the women assume that Mindgeek and its more than 100 pornographic subsidiaries benefit financially from videos of sexual violence, explicit rape and even sexual violence against minors and children – and on a large scale.
Pornhub describes the allegations as “absurd”
In the lawsuit, which is available to the AFP news agency, it is said that Mindgeek is a “classic criminal company”. Pornhub is believed to be “the largest unregulated child pornography warehouse in North America and far beyond.” The company structure was set up in such a way that non-consensual sexual acts and images of them would help the company to earn money. In addition to Pornhub, Mindgeek also includes Youporn and Redtube. Overall, the platforms are expected to have around 3.5 billion views a month.
The operators of Pornhub denied the allegations in a statement and described them as “absurd”. Much of the content on the site is uploaded by users from the community themselves. However, according to Pornhub, the material would be reviewed by human moderators before it is published. The company takes allegations like those of the plaintiffs very seriously.
Claims against Pornhub are not new
Again and again there are allegations against porn platforms on the Internet, according to which the identity and age of the people in the videos or on the pictures are not checked during upload.
Only last December, the “New York Times” made corresponding allegations after investigative research. According to this, Pornhub is “contaminated” with material that shows rape of adults and even children. The platform operators denied and announced a revision of the security standards.
The 34 plaintiffs in the current case are now demanding compensation from Pornhub mother Mindgeek in addition to better protection. It is time companies and individuals were held accountable for benefiting from non-consensual and illegal content.
“I’m going with the lawsuit because I’m looking for justice for myself,” said one of the women. “And for the numerous victims who do not comment.”
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