Petition to shut down Pornhub for hosting rape and sex-trafficking videos gains one million signatures
Pornhub drew a lot of criticism and backlash when it was alleged that the porn site's video content comprised of films depicting sex-trafficking and rape of minors. In the past few months, victims of sexual assault came forward claiming that they have had their videos uploaded on to the website without their consent and had to take extreme measures to have them taken down.
In the past year, multiple victims have accused Pornhub of actively profiting from videos of them being sexually abused uploaded on to the porn site and failing to compensate them in reparations. In light of these events, anti-trafficking expert and founder of Traffickinghub, Laila Mickelwait released an op-ed to begin a campaign that aimed to shut down the world's largest adult entertainment site on February 9, earlier this year.
Spearheading a petition and powered by the anti-trafficking organization Exodus Cry, the campaign rapidly gained momentum as a movement to expose the issue, while calling for justice for victims of child rape and sex-trafficking that had been wronged. The petition has been endorsed by more than 300 anti-trafficking, child protection, and women's rights organizations across the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Europe, and Latin America. The news of the campaign spread far and wide through various national and international media outlets and also sparked a large protest in front of Pornhub's headquarters in Montreal, Canada on International Women's Day.
Recently, the campaign hit a new milestone by garnering over a million signatures with signees hailing from 192 countries, calling for Pornhub to be banned for good. The campaign has urged legislative bodies in Canada and the US to conduct federal level investigations into MindGeek. The petition's success motivated US Senator Ben Sasse to address a letter to attorney general William Barr, demanding that the US Department of Justice begin looking into Pornhub and MindGeek.
In Canada, a letter addressed to Prime Minister Trudeau by a multi-party group of Canadian members of the parliament also highlighted that the Canadian Government should investigate the website and its parent company. Furthermore, the petition and overall campaign to shutter Pornhub has even drawn support from some porn professionals and adult entertainers, who released a manifesto and change.org petition rejecting the website and its parent company.
Pornhub is the world's biggest adult entertainment site that garnered 42 billion visits in 2019, with its free access and lack of age restrictions. It creates revenue through advertising paid-for promotions from porn producers. The allegations against the site and its parent company, MindGeek were centered on the company's incompetence in checking the veracity of the millions of video content that is uploaded in its database each year, mostly by amateur producers.
The movement prompted several activists to come forward and voice their displeasure for the porn site hosting video content displaying sex-trafficking and rape of women and children. “Pornhub is in the business of commodifying and monetizing violence against women and children. There is no place for Pornhub in a world committed to sexual equality, dignity, and social justice,” said Dr Gail Dines, professor emerita, of Wheelock College and the CEO of Culture Reframed in a press release sent to MEA World Wide (MEAWW). Taina Bien-Aime, Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women added, “Calling for Pornhub to shut down is not based on morality or religion or personal opinion – it is founded on universal principles of human rights and the right to live free from violence. Pornhub is making billions of dollars, profiting from the exploitation, sexual violence, and dehumanization of the most vulnerable people in the world, with impunity.”
A day after the petition was started, BBC published a story of a woman named Rose Kalemba who was raped at 14 and the video recording of the incident had been uploaded onto Pornhub by her abusers under tags like 'Teen crying and getting slapped around', 'Teen getting destroyed' and 'passed out teen'. Kalemba said she had to go to extremes to get the porn site to take her videos down and even posed as a lawyer threatening legal action. In another instance, an underage girl had been missing for nearly a whole year, before her mother learned that 60 pornographic videos of her had been uploaded to Pornhub, Snapchat, Periscope, ModelHub and Mickelwait noted on Twitter that the girl had been described as "verified model with valid ID."
“Pornhub and its parent company, Mindgeek, must be held accountable for facilitating, promoting, and profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation. The grassroots outcry against Pornhub which is spreading around the world is long overdue and represents a powerful statement on behalf of the victims and survivors who have been--and continue to be--exploited for profit by Mindgeek” concurred Dawn Hawkins, Senior VP and Executive Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation in the press release. Kate Isaacs, the founder of the UK-based organization #NotYourPorn asserted, "MindGeek, owners of Pornhub, have proven themselves to ignore the blatant non-consensual abuse content they have on their site. Their lack of moderation and irresponsible practices have allowed the platform to be littered with non-consensual and underaged content. We will continue to work with victims in the UK and across the world to ensure Pornhub no longer profits from their trauma. External regulation needs to be enforced by governments to send a clear message; clean up Pornhub or shut it down."
“Pornhub's executives turn a blind eye to the scores of illegal and abusive videos they host and promote, for the sole purpose of corporate profit. Pornhub is profoundly complicit in child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking," Vanessa Morse, CEO of the Centre for the End of All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) noted. “All it takes to upload content to Pornhub is an email address—no government-issued ID is required. Pornhub doesn’t bother to reliably verify the age or the consent of the millions featured in the videos it hosts and profits from, yet it monetizes those videos with no questions asked. The site is set up for exploitation and is infested with videos of the real rape, trafficking, abuse, and exploitation of women and children. We have evidence and it is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Mickelwait. "Shut it down".