December 16, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Since the New York Times published their bombshell report by Nicholas Kristof on the orgy of rape and sexual abuse featured daily on Pornhub, the bad news continues to pour in for Mindgeek. U.S. senators are putting forward bipartisan legislation; a Canadian parliamentary committee is calling on top executives to testify; and Pornhub deleted over 10 million videos—up to 60% of the site’s content—in a panicked scramble to avoid accountability. The strategy does not appear to be working.
Today, Pornhub got hit again when the news broke that forty survivors of abuse and sex trafficking are filing lawsuits against the site for facilitating their online exploitation. In January, survivors of a porn production company called Girls Do Porn won $12.7 million from the company, with the men who ran Girls Do Porn are still facing federal sex trafficking charges. The civil suit detailed the threats, manipulation, grooming, and deceit utilized by the pornographers to accumulate the material. The victims were at times even “trapped in hotel rooms.”
Like many other traffickers and perpetrators of sexual exploitation, Girls Do Porn uploaded videos of the victims to Pornhub, which has consistently (and deceitfully) claimed to have a stringent verification process for videos. Pornhub promptly monetized the videos and raked in profits from the victims—and refused to take the videos down, even after the victims were awarded millions in a civil lawsuit against Girls Do Porn. Forty victims have filed suit on December 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, represented by the Holm Law Group PC and The O’Brien Law Firm, APLC.
WARNING: This material includes disturbing information.
UPDATE (3/10/2020) - Senator Ben Sasse, junior senator from Nebraska, has written a letter to the Department of Justice, and U.S. Attorney General William Barr, asking for an investigation into Pornhub, and its parent company, MindGeek.
We thank Senator Sasse for his courage and leadership on this issue. This is obviously a massive step in the right direction!
After reviewing many heinous instances of Pornhub having hosted videos of women and children victims of sex trafficking, Senator Sasse appeals to directly to the Attorney General, saying: "I applaud the actions that the Department [of Justice] has already undertaken under your leadership on this issue, but Pornhub must not escape scrutiny. I therefore request that the Department open an investigation into Pornhub and its parent entity MindGeek Holding SARL for their involvement in this disturbing pipeline of exploiting children and other victims and survivors of sex trafficking."
Pornhub definitely should be investigated, along with MindGeek, its parent company.
But, the abortion facility which facilitated the abortion of the sex traffickers, without notifying authorities, should also be investigated, too.
And, until such time as an investigation actually takes place, we will continue petitioning the U.S. and Canadian Attorneys General.
Could we ask that you please SIGN this urgent petition?
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UPDATE (3/10/2020) - News has resurfaced that the Pornhub-featured minor female victim of trafficking, who was filmed numerous times being raped and then re-victimized again when the footage was uploaded to the porn site, endured a forced abortion.
According to news and police reports, the girl was forced to have an abortion against her will by her male abductor, whose videos of the assaults, which were found in his apartment, were also uploaded to Pornhub.
It is a known fact that abortion has been frequently used by rapists to cover-up their crimes.
How many victims of human trafficking and rape, whose videos Pornhub may have hosted, were also forced to abort a child?
This is as bad as it gets. And, this is precisely why Pornhub needs to be investigated and shut down.
Could we ask you to please consider reading and signing this important petition?
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Pornhub, one of the world's largest pornography distributors, must be investigated and shut down.
Recently, Pornhub was discovered hosting 58 videos of a 15-year-old human trafficking victim who was raped.
Please sign this petition which calls on the U.S. Attorney General and his Canadian counterpart to investigate and shut down Pornhub, whose parent company, MindGeek.com, is based in Canada.
When Pornhub was caught hosting these rape videos, they attempted to deny the fact, saying that the 15-year-old victim was a "verified model with a valid ID."
Read this Tweet, which captures their denial and defiance.
Human trafficking, rape...child pornography: this is truly disgusting.
Are there more victims of human trafficking, rape and child pornography still hosted on Pornhub?
If so, where are these victims now? And, how much could Pornhub have profited from these vile activities?
For the sake of all victims of human trafficking past, present and future, Pornhub needs to be investigated and shut down.
If Pornhub is allowed to get away with this now, then human traffickers will know that they can continue their evil deeds and no-one will care.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition, and join the chorus of people, from all sides of the political spectrum, calling on the porn hosting monster to be investigated by U.S. and Canadian authorities, and to be shut down.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
"BREAKING: US senator calls Justice Dept to investigate Pornhub in wake of child rape vids" - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-us-senator-calls-justice-dept-to-investigate-pornhub-in-wake-of-child-rape-vids
"Child repeatedly raped in illegal Pornhub videos endured forced abortion" - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/child-repeatedly-raped-in-illegal-pornhub-videos-endured-forced-abortion
"Pornhub caught hosting illegal vids of 15-year-old victim of human trafficking, rape" -https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pornhub-caught-hosting-illegal-vids-of-15-year-old-victim-of-human-trafficking-rape
The John Henry Westen Show on Pornhub and its Canadian parent company MindGeek.com - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/ripping-the-mask-off-porn-and-the-canadian-company-thats-fueling-the-industry
"Porn is reaching dangerous new lows with gang rape, violence" - https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/porn-is-reaching-dangerous-new-lows-with-gang-rape-violence
"PayPal cuts ties with major pornography site" - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/paypal-cuts-ties-with-major-pornography-site
Disclaimer: The Lifesite petition is not affiliated with Laila Micklwait or the Traffickinghub petition that is calling for the US Department of Justice to shut down Pornhub and hold its executives accountable for aiding trafficking. That petition can be found at Traffickinghub.com.
According to Benjamin Bull, general counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), this is a hugely important step. “It’s very significant in that it continues to publicly reveal the outlaw nature of Pornhub,” he told LifeSiteNews. “They are pretending to be a responsible online operator when in fact they are the leading exploiter of women in the world. This is a zeitgeist moment, similar to the Harvey Weinstein story breaking and changing the cultural view. Exploiting women is unacceptable and perpetrators will be punished. They have been outed as a predator.”
Bull noted that Pornhub will be fighting this case tooth and nail. “The key will be getting past a motion to dismiss, which I’d say is 50/50,” he told LifeSiteNews. “Pornhub will attempt to buy their way out of the lawsuit rather than allow wide discovery into their business model.” After all, the stakes are incredibly high for Pornhub. If the lawsuits succeed, says Bull, “they will be required to change their business model in the same way the tobacco industry had to change their business practices. There will be strong constraints on uploading exploitative videos, warning labels, and a flood of additional lawsuits.”
Jake Roberson, NCOSE’s director of communications, says that more action is necessary. “We are urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Pornhub,” he stated. “Congress should also pass the EARN IT Act, which would finally allow digital platforms like Pornhub, Twitter, and Facebook to be held accountable if they aid and abet the distribution or consumption of child sexual abuse material.” While the recent progress has been encouraging, he told LifeSiteNews, “the work is far from over. Victims and survivors deserve justice, and Pornhub and MindGeek (Pornhub’s parent company) must be held accountable—both financially and legally—for the full scope and magnitude of its crimes.”
NCOSE and their allies are already pushing forward. “It has come to light that Visa, Mastercard, and Discover are still working with and processing transactions for TrafficJunky, the ad platform that Pornhub’s owner, MindGeek, also owns and which it uses to run advertising on Pornhub,” he explained. “We will be working to encourage credit card companies to sever these ties and any others that allow Pornhub to stay in business.”
In the meantime, Roberson told LifeSiteNews, we shouldn’t be taking Pornhub at their word. “There is certainly no reason for anyone to trust Pornhub. Regardless of any of Pornhub’s recently announced ‘improvements,’ the reality remains that it has profited for years from rape, child sexual abuse material, sex trafficking, revenge pornography and other racist and misogynistic content. Its entire business model is based on facilitating and monetizing the harm of women and the exploitation of myriad marginalized individuals. Pornhub must face full financial and legal accountability. Pornhub must be shut down.”
While we are far from that goal, we are closer than we’ve been in years.
Jonathon’s new podcast, The Van Maren Show, is dedicated to telling the stories of the pro-life and pro-family movement. In his latest episode, he interviews Jojo Ruba, founder and executive director of Faith Beyond Belief, an organization that seeks to give Christians the tools needed to become effective apologists and ambassadors for Christ. Ruba discusses the recent news that the Canadian government, under liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is trying to ban therapy for persons struggling with same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria.
You can subscribe here and listen to the episode below:
