More than 30 women accuse Pornhub of profiting from sexual abuse videos in new lawsuit
A new lawsuit filed in the U.S. against MindGeek, the Montreal-based owner of online porn giant Pornhub, is asking that the case be tried before a jury over allegations the website allowed child pornography and other illegal videos to be posted to the Internet.
The suit was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in California on behalf of 34 women from Canada, Thailand, the U.S. and several other countries who allege videos of them were uploaded to Pornhub, the world’s largest porn site, without their consent, and in some cases, when they were minors.
(The full text of the complaint is posted below).
MindGeek, which operates Pornhub and several other porn sites, is headquartered in Montreal and takes in billions of dollars in revenue from the content uploaded to its site.
The lawsuit alleges MindGeek operates like “a classic criminal enterprise” headed by co-owners Feras Antoon, a Canadian resident, and Berg Bergmair who go to great lengths to shield themselves from the public eye and profit from videos of non-consensual acts and sexual assaults by allowing users to upload them to Pornhub, MindGeek’s flagship website.
The porn enterprise responds to threats of exposure with smear campaigns against critics and internet hacking to conceal its criminal activities, including: “human trafficking; child pornography; criminal copyright piracy; internet hacking, stalking, and doxing; blackmail and extortion; mail and wire fraud; embezzlement, bank and creditor fraud; tax evasion; and money laundering,” the lawsuit alleges.
Several disturbing allegations are included in the suit about women finding videos of themselves on Pornhub without their consent.
In one case, a woman alleged she was raped when she was 22 after being given a date rape drug at a party in 2017 and a video of the attack was uploaded to Pornhub without her knowledge.
After demanding that the video be taken down, the lawsuit claims “Pornhub misrepresented that without a url code, title, or link there was no way for them to identify the video to remove it.”
“To this day, Jane Doe No. 15 continues to be recognized in public, harassed, and called a ‘slut’ or a ‘whore.’ This experience has caused Jane Doe No. 15 to suffer from severe depression and anxiety.”
In another case, one plaintiff alleged she discovered a video of her online that shows that her now ex-husband had drugged her, sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious and uploaded a recording of the incident to Pornhub and other sites.
The woman’s former husband was charged in June 2021, according to the lawsuit, with sexual assault and distributing intimate images without consent.
The lawsuit alleges that the woman asked that the video be taken down and had to get the police involved. While the video was removed three days after contacting law enforcement, copies of the video spread elsewhere on the web.
“In addition, MindGeek added Jane Doe No. 14’s video to its affiliated sites as a cheap way of adding additional content and driving traffic. Of the 1,900 search results, Pornhub was the source for all of the active videos,” the lawsuit alleged.
MINDGEEK RESPONDS TO ALLEGATIONS
None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been tested or proven in court.
Pornhub announced last December it has banned video uploads from unverified users. In a written statement to CTV News Thursday, MindGeek said it is currently reviewing and investigating the lawsuit.
“Pornhub has zero tolerance for illegal content and investigates any complaint or allegation made about content on our platforms,” the statement stated.
“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.”
Pornhub also doubled down on Michael J. Bowe, the U.S. lawyer representing the 34 women in the lawsuit, accusing him of being “a soldier of the ultra-right wing effort to shut down the adult content industry.”
“We stand resolutely with all victims of internet-related abuse. Pornhub takes every complaint regarding the abuse of its platform seriously, including those of the plaintiffs in this case,” the company’s statement said.
LAWYER WANTS TO SEE MINDGEEK EXECS IN COURT
In an interview with CTV News on Thursday, Bowe said he denies the accusation that he's on a mission to end porn.
“Adult entertainment is legitimate entertainment, it's a legitimate business, it's protected by the First Amendment here in the United States, but it needs to be between two consenting adults,” he said Thursday.
“And there should be no place for systemic appearances of underage pornography, rape videos, or anything like that.”
He said it’s time for the owners of MindGeek to “come into a courtroom and be confronted by these 34 women.”
The lawsuit was filed on the same day a parliamentary committee released a report into its study of Pornhub.
Among the recommendations in the House of Commons ethics committee report is that the federal government hold online platforms liable for failing to prevent the upload, or ensure the timely removal, of child sexual abuse or non-consensual content.
The committee also recommended that the government make changes to the Mandatory Reporting Act to make the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre the designated law enforcement agency to handle reports of child sexual abuse materials.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.