Pornhub could face consequences for sharing “under-age, non-consensual” videos. The world’s largest porn site, owned by MindGeek, is the subject of a lawsuit brought by 34 women. The women say they didn’t consent to have videos that feature them on the site. In an exclusive report, CBS News spoke with four of the women:
The civil suit, filed Thursday, accuses the company of running a “criminal enterprise.” Pornhub markets itself as a mainstream site for adult content and says it yields 130 million users each day — more than Netflix or Amazon. But the women suing the company have accused it of exploiting them for profit, hosting and promoting graphic videos of rape, revenge porn and even videos that depict child sexual abuse.
While this lawsuit is civil, victims told CBS they “hope the company will someday be held criminally responsible.” The company claims to have made several changes late last year, removing millions of videos and adding an id requirement for people posting videos.
In its statement to CBS, MindGeek wrote:
“Anyone who attempts to post nonconsensual imagery or child sexual abuse material on the internet is a criminal, and we are committed to remaining at the forefront of the internet when it comes to the elimination of illegal content. Every online platform has the responsibility to join this fight, and it requires collective action and constant vigilance. We hope other platforms will use our model to help eradicate unwanted content.”
Watch the full report from CBS above.