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U.S. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NB) at a Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill September 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. Jim Bourg-Pool/Getty Images

PETITION: Authorities must shut down Pornhub after showing videos of 15-year-old trafficking victim! Sign the petition here.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 10, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska called on the US Department of Justice Tuesday to launch a formal investigation of PornHub and its parent company MindGeek over the pornography giant’s hosting of illegal videos that show a minor human-trafficking victim being raped.

As LifeSiteNews has covered, controversy erupted for PornHub with the discovery of 58 videos of a 15-year-old girl being raped. The girl has been identified as a victim of human trafficking. It has also been reported that she was forced to undergo an abortion by her captor.

“I applaud the actions that the Department has already undertaken under your leadership on this issue, but Pornhub must not escape scrutiny,” Sasse wrote to US Attorney General William Barr. “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.”

Sasse’s letter notes that almost seven million videos were uploaded to PornHub in 2019, a year during which “every minute” saw “80,032 visits, 77,861 searches, and 219,985 video views.”

Noting this latest story was not the first instance of a rape video being uploaded to PornHub, Sasse said the “problem of Pornhub streaming content featuring women and children victims of sex trafficking reached the point in November that Paypal cut off services for Pornhub, refusing to facilitate this abuse any longer.”

“Sen. Ben Sasse has shown true leadership today in calling on DOJ to investigate Pornhub over its alleged complicity in sexual trafficking and abuse,” American Principles Project executive director Terry Schilling responded to the news. “APP strongly commends the Senator for calling attention to this issue, and we urgently implore the Trump administration to take every step in its power to protect vulnerable women and children from this dangerous industry.”

International Women’s Day this weekend saw concerned protesters from across the political spectrum descend on MindGeek’s Montreal office, chanting “Shut it down!” in unison.

LifeSiteNews is currently circulating a petition calling on Barr and his Canadian counterpart, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti, to not only investigate but shut down both PornHub and Mindgeek. The petition currently has more than 36,000 signatures.

“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,” the petition warns. “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.”