Pornhub Sued by 34 Survivors While Canadian Parliament Urges Action to Hold Pornhub Accountable
Washington, DC (June 18, 2021) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) believes justice must be served for the 34 survivors who have filed a new civil lawsuit against Pornhub for profiting from their abuse and exploitation. NCOSE also commends the Canadian Parliament for its new report outlining solutions to hold Pornhub and its Montreal-based parent company, MindGeek, accountable for hosting material with child sexual abuse, rape, revenge porn, and nonconsensual images.
“The survivors suing Pornhub deserve justice for the trauma they have endured from this billion-dollar corporation that has profited from their abuse and exploitation. Many of these survivors were minors when they were raped, sex trafficked, or when their images were uploaded to Pornhub without their consent. This horrific evil has no place in society, and Pornhub must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law for contributing to these survivors’ trauma,” said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“Pornhub’s exploitation empire must be dismantled. Canada has taken steps to hold Pornhub accountable and offers a number of solutions in its new report to ensure that Pornhub doesn’t leave more victims in its wake. Just one of its solutions calls on the Canadian Government to ‘hold online platforms’ liable for any failure to prevent the upload of, or ensure the timely deletion of child sexual abuse material, content depicting non-consensual activity, and any other content uploaded without the knowledge or consent of all parties’ – a common sense way to ensure Pornhub and other online pornography companies are held to account,” Hawkins added.
NCOSE and other survivors and advocates held a virtual U.S. Congressional briefing in April that presented evidence of the rampant criminality on Pornhub and included testimony from survivors. An online petition has garnered over 2.2 million signatures to shut down Pornhub for aiding sex trafficking. Six civil lawsuits have been filed against MindGeek, including two class action lawsuits in the U.S. on behalf of minors, one of which was jointly filed by NCOSE and several other law firms on behalf of two survivors of childhood sex trafficking. For more information, visit NCOSE’s Dismantle Pornhub Campaign.
