Politics

Dozens Of Women Sue Pornhub After It Allegedly Posted Non-Consensual Sex Videos

(Photo by Jack Taylor/AFP for Getty Images)

Caroline Kucera Contributor
Font Size:

Dozens of women have sued Pornhub, alleging that it posted and profited from videos depicting sex trafficking, child sexual exploitation and other non-consensual sexual content. 

The complaint filed Thursday targets Pornhub’s parent company, MindGeek, for allegedly being a “classic criminal enterprise” and allowing the monetization of non-consensual sexual content. Brown Rudnick LLP filed a civil complaint on behalf of 34 victims of sexual exploitation who seek damages and protection, according to CNN Business.

“This is a case about rape, not pornography,” the complaint reads. “And it is a case about each of these defendants knowingly and intentionally electing to capitalize and profit from the horrendous exploitation and abuse of tens of thousands of other human beings so they could make more than the enormous sums of money they would have otherwise made anyway.”

The complaint lists just one of the defendants — a woman named Serena Fleites — while the other 33 remain anonymous. 

One of the anonymous plaintiffs told reporters on a conference call that a video posted of her on Pornhub ruined her life, and joined the lawsuit to “seek justice” for herself and the “countless” other victims who did not come forward, according to CNN.

Michael Bow, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told reporters on the same call that the online porn industry operates as an “old-school red-light district of commerce.” Bow said he thinks rules should apply to the industry, and more should be adopted. 

MindGeek is a major player in the online porn world. The company owns over 100 websites, production companies and brands including Pornhub, RedTube, Tube8, Xtube and Youporn. CBS reported that while MindGeek owns production companies that create original pornographic content, for years,  a majority of the content on Pornhub was uploaded by users who were not verified. Pornhub also is free for anyone on the internet to access. 

While Pornhub “takes every complaint regarding the abuse of its platform seriously, including those of the plaintiffs in this case,” it rebuffed the allegation that the company was a “criminal enterprise” in a statement provided to CNN.

Its various entities get 3.5 billion views per month, lawyers told CNN. (RELATED: Pornhub Executive, MindGeek CEO’s House Burns Down In Suspected Arson).

The suit is the latest in a slew of legal actions taken against Pornhub and MindGeek. Visa, Mastercard and Discover barred their customers from making purchases on Pornhub in December after similar allegations of showing child abuse and non-consensual sexual behavior on the site surfaced. 

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel