Women on a college field hockey team were preyed upon by a man who secretly filmed them showering and changing in a locker room. That footage was uploaded to XHamster and Pornhub.
Nine of those women have sued XHamster and Pornhub for this crime, and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation has joined as co-counsel in this lawsuit that highlights the egregious exploitation of image-based sexual abuse.
In the lawsuit (Does 1-9 v. Murphy et al), the plaintiffs, Jane Does 1-9, are young women who were filmed, allegedly by the intramural/summer conference director of a college in South Carolina., who placed a hidden “spy camera” in a locker room and secretly filmed the women in all stages of undress, and then uploaded the video footage to XHamster and Pornhub.
Dani Pinter, senior legal counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said, “It is reprehensible that these women’s privacy was violated by the secret recording, but this was made even worse when the footage was uploaded to XHamster and Pornhub, both of which then profited from their abuse. These women deserve every ounce of justice for their abuse and exploitation, and for the egregious violation of privacy.”
XHamster and Pornhub took no action to verify the age or consent of the women in the videos, which were labeled as “spy cam” and “hidden cam” videos. Instead, they monetized the women’s abuse.
“Spy cam,” “Hidden camera,” and “Voyeur” are extremely popular genres and were official categories and tags on Pornhub at the time, and continue to be active on XHamster today. In this case, both platforms capitalized on these categories of videos which eroticized the violation of women’s privacy.
Ms. Pinter points out that at least one of the videos was uploaded by a “verified” Modelhub member who did not even appear in the videos. “This reveals Pornhub’s verification process for what it is: a sham,” she said.
“Pornography tube sites like XHamster and Pornhub have no financial incentive to remove potentially illegal material, so they don’t,” Ms. Pinter added. “The women’s lack of consent was the point. It was clear on the face of the videos that these young women did not know they were being recorded and if there was any doubt the titles confirmed it. MindGeek and XHamster fetishized this condemnable invasion of privacy and profited from it. This lawsuit seeks to hold them accountable.”
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center joins the Bell Legal Group, LLC, and Dolt, Thompson, Shepherd & Conway, PSC, as co-counsel for the plaintiffs.
NCOSE joined the lawsuit to continue to seek justice for individuals who are victims of image-based sexual abuse, and because companies like XHamster and Pornhub need to be held accountable.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center offers survivors a way to seek justice. More information can be found at: https://sexualexploitationlawsuits.com/.
