KEY POINTS

  • 40 victims of sex trafficking are suing Pornhub for over $1 million each
  • They say Pornhub knew about their exploitation and profited from it, refusing to take down the illegal videos
  • It comes after an expose led to Mastercard and Visa halting payments on the site, which then took down all user-submitted content

It's been a difficult couple of weeks for Pornhub. After the fallout from a New York Times report on Dec. 4 that accused the adult video site of being "infested" with child-abuse and rape-related videos, the platform's parent company, MindGeek, was sued Tuesday in Southern California by 40 women who claim the site profited off adult production company GirlsDoPorn, an alleged sex-trafficking scheme.

The women, who are seeking over $1 million each in damages, claim they were coerced by GirlsDoPorn, the heads of which are alternately in police custody or on the FBI’s wanted list. GirlsDoPorn was indicted by U.S. authorities in 2019.

Their victims say that they were forced to perform sex acts through a variety of false pretenses and threats.

MindGeek, a privately held Montreal-based company, is being sued because they entered into a content partnership with GirlsDoPorn despite allegedly knowing that the acts were coerced. The complaint states that Pornhub was aware of the crimes as early as 2009 and in 2016 at the latest.

In 2018, Pornhub executives reportedly entered into a letter of intent to buy GirlsDoPorn but backed out when they learned of the coercion.

Pressure has mounted since the New York Times published a piece accusing the site of profiting from abusive content, with Visa and Mastercard announcing they would no longer process payments to Pornhub. 
Pressure has mounted since the New York Times published a piece accusing the site of profiting from abusive content, with Visa and Mastercard announcing they would no longer process payments to Pornhub.  GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Ethan Miller

The victims claim to have sent numerous requests for the videos to be taken down to no avail. The lawsuit says that all 40 victims became suicidal, some of which mentioned it in their ignored requests.

"I’m going to kill myself if this stays up here," reads one request in the lawsuit. "I was scammed and told this was only going to be on DVDs in another country. Please I’m begging you please ill pay!"

They also say Pornhub bought a website, PornWikiLeaks.com, specifically to profit off the traffic it got from doxxing Girls Do Porn’s victims, wanting to use it as a “marketing tool.” The website was purchased by adult video site Bang Bros. in 2019 and shut down, with Bang Bros. owners posting a video of a burning hard drive purportedly containing the site’s data.

It’s the latest blow in Pornhub’s tailspin following an expose from the columnist Nicholas Kristoff that prompted Mastercard and Visa to halt payments to the site. Pornhub deleted all user-submitted content off the platform, but that wouldn’t have stopped a partner like GirlsDoPorn from uploading illegal content.

The victims say that their videos remained on the platform as late as Saturday -- well after the criminal charges came to light. Pornhub "simply did not care... until it was no longer profitable," the lawsuit read.

MindGeek has not responded to International Business Times' request for comment.

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