Ever since a blockbuster New York Times piece critiqued several of its business practices, Pornhub has been under a heightened level of scrutiny. That that’s been the case isn’t all that surprising — the Times article was unsettling and even horrific reading at times. Now, a group of 34 women are suing both Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek. Making things even more harrowing is the connection to another high-profile case involving unspeakable acts: one of the women involved in the suit was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein.
Writing at Insider, Isobel Asher Hamilton has more details on the lawsuit, including some disquieting specifics. All of the plaintiffs say that they were victims of sex trafficking; for 14 of them, that took place when they were underage.
One of the plaintiffs contends that a video that she flagged for removal in 2014 after it was uploaded without her consent was repeatedly uploaded again and again to the site in the years that followed. Another woman, according to Hamilton, “says she was trafficked from age seven up until she went to college, and was at one point trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein.”
The plaintiffs argue in their lawsuit that Pornhub knowingly profited from the videos in which they appeared. “Pornhub has zero tolerance for illegal content and investigates any complaint or allegation made about content on our platforms,” a spokesperson for the company said in response.
Hamilton notes that the lawsuit was filed in California on Thursday. It’s a high-profile case that’s likely to prompt more questions about Pornhub’s business and its methods — as well as larger questions about the industry as a whole.
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