Washington, DC (June 2, 2021) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is recognizing Comcast/Xfinity with its Dignity Defense Alert for removing all content owned by Pornhub’s parent company, MindGeek, from its cable systems. The Dignity Defense Alert is a campaign honoring institutions and individuals taking concrete steps to promote a culture of human dignity by combating sexual exploitation and abuse.
In an email to NCOSE, a Comcast representative shared that the company was deeply concerned over the growing number of reports against MindGeek for unlawful business practices, including minors being exploited on their sites. As a result of this increasing evidence, Comcast decided to drop MindGeek content from their cable systems, alerted all existing customers with subscriptions, and informed NCOSE that as of April 2021, all MindGeek-owned content has been removed. NCOSE has been in contact with Comcast since 2013, most recently as part of its Dismantle Pornhub campaign with a request that Comcast cut ties with MindGeek, and has been encouraged by advances the corporation has made in the past to stem sexual exploitation available through its services.
“As the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue, Comcast’s principled stand against MindGeek is a major victory for human dignity, and we are pleased to recognize Comcast with the Dignity Defense Alert,” said Lina Nealon, director of corporate and strategic initiatives for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“Comcast joins Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Unilever, Kraft Heinz, and Paypal in taking action against MindGeek and/or its flagship pornography site Pornhub. It is the right move for corporations to cut ties with an industry that relies on the sexual exploitation and abuse of women, men, and children,” Nealon said. “While Comcast still has more work to do to completely rid its services of the violent, racist, and exploitative content inherent in pornography it continues to provide, ending their relationship with MindGeek is a significant step and a win worth celebrating.”
Evidence continues to grow that sheds light on MindGeek and the pornography industry’s predatory practices and apathy for the proliferation of child sex abuse material, sex trafficking, and non-consensual videos and images on its sites. Survivors bear witness as to how Pornhub monetized their abuse by leaving crime scene footage live on their sites after repeated requests for removal, even featuring and promoting unlawful content to drive more viewers to their sites.
NCOSE, along with over 700 survivors and advocates from around the world, over 375 of which are U.S.-based, have called on U.S. Congressional leaders to open a criminal investigation into Pornhub’s parent company, MindGeek, and other similarly-structured pornography tube sites.
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.
