Presenters will provide a concise overview of evidence related to the criminal behavior of MindGeek, owner of Pornhub.
The evidence of MindGeek’s complicity in mass sexual crime is overwhelming and continues to grow. It is time for both criminal prosecution and regulatory preventative action. For over a decade, MindGeek has been confronted by numerous survivors who have come forward about their sex trafficking or child sexual abuse being filmed and then uploaded, monetized, promoted, made downloadable, and shared countless times on Pornhub and other MindGeek-owned websites. Pornhub has profited from the mass distribution of filmed sexual crime as well as non-consensually recorded and non-consensually uploaded videos.
A December 2020 New York Times exposé, “The Children of Pornhub,” revealed the rampant sexual abuse of minors on Pornhub, an online petition has garnered over 2 million signatures to shut down Pornhub for aiding sex trafficking, and multiple class action civil lawsuits have been filed in the US and Canada on behalf of sexually abused children and trafficking victims. In response, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover credit cards rightly cut ties with Pornhub. U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-CA, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-NE, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-OR, Sen. Rob Portman, R-OH, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL have spoken out condemning the widespread rape, sex trafficking and non-consensual content on Pornhub, and some have called for a US Department of Justice investigation.
Furthermore, Canadian Parliament’s House of Commons Ethics committee has launched an investigation into MindGeek’s complicity in mass sex crimes. During one of these recent investigative hearings, MindGeek executives who were called to testify lied about having a partnership with the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). It was also revealed that Pornhub reported zero instances of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM, i.e. child pornography) to US or Canadian child protection agencies or law enforcement from 2008-2020, which is a criminal offense in Canada and the US. On March 15, 2021 over 70 Canadian Senators and MPs from all eight political parties called on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to initiate a full criminal investigation into MindGeek.
The United States is by far the number one consumer of Pornhub, the corporation has offices in the U.S. and has servers in America. It is time for the United States to hold Pornhub and its parent company, MindGeek, accountable for the mass criminal exploitation of countless victims over the past decade.
This briefing will help provide the information necessary to begin pursuing justice for victims.
Learn more here.
