Cambridge, England (March 18, 2021) – The joint campaign #DismantlePornhub has been launched by the International Centre on Sexual Exploitation (UK), Collective Shout (Australia), Defend Dignity (Canada), and Traffickinghub (USA) to call out entities that support the infrastructure of Pornhub and MindGeek.
MindGeek-owned Pornhub has been exposed for hosting videos containing child sexual abuse material, sexual assault, sex trafficking, and non-consensual content and this week 70 members of Canadian government have called for criminal investigations of the company.
Each week a new corporation supporting Pornhub/MindGeek through advertising, distribution, consumer services, or technology support will be named and contacted by a coalition of international survivors and advocates. Visa, Mastercard, and Discover credit cards have rightly stopped processing payments for Pornhub, and Heinz and Unilever stopped running advertisements on the site.
This week, the International Centre on Sexual Exploitation (ICOSE), along with 41 survivors and advocates representing twelve countries, have sent a letter to Roku CEO Anthony Wood to request that Roku shut down the Pornhub private channel and block any hosting or facilitation of MindGeek entities.
Roku allows developers to set up “private” or “hidden” channels, enabling Roku to be a major mainstream destination for streaming sexually exploitative content. The letter points out that Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV have “rightly taken measures to prohibit hardcore pornographic content from being accessed through their services.”
“Because Roku has hosted a Pornhub channel, it has likely helped facilitate the streaming of child sexual abuse material, sex trafficking, rape, and non-consensual recorded and/or uploaded content, not to mention racist and incest-themed pornography. Roku has known about the nature of this abusive content they help to distribute for years, but as more have come forward, we hope they will finally listen to survivors. It’s time for Roku to cut all ties with MindGeek, including Pornhub and its hundreds of other pornography websites,” said Haley McNamara, Director of the International Centre on Sexual Exploitation.
“We are urging Mr. Wood to personally take action to cease propping up the hardcore pornography industry,” McNamara added.
On April 8, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, will hold an online briefing for U.S. congressional staff and law enforcement professionals that will present evidence of MindGeek-owned Pornhub’s abuse.
More information can be found here: https://endsexualexploitation.org/pornhub.
About International Centre on Sexual Exploitation (ICOSE)
Utilizing cutting edge tactics for private and public policy advocacy and building on a decade of coalition-building experience, the International Centre on Sexual Exploitation (ICOSE) works to bolster the global abolitionist movement. ICOSE is a UK-based division of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). Learn more at: https://endsexualexploitation.org/icose/
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-partisan organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.
