Content warning - Pornhub titles may be distressing
Via The Guardian
An online petition accusing Pornhub, the UK’s biggest open access porn site, from profiting from videos of rape and sexual abuse has reached over 350,000 signatures.
Pornhub is the world’s biggest porn site and was visited 42bn times last year. It is free to access, with no age restrictions, and raises revenue through advertising and paid-for promotions by porn producers.
The serious allegations levied against Pornhub owner Mindgeek centre on the perceived insufficiency of the company’s safeguarding checks on the 6m videos a year that are posted on the site, many by amateur producers. Over the past year the company has faced multiple accusations that rape and abuse videos were widely posted on the site.
The petition was started by a group called Exodus Cry in the US but is being supported by activists in the UK, where Mindgeek also has offices.
“This is a company that is generating millions in advertising and membership revenue and yet they do not have an effective system in place to verify reliably the age or consent of those featured in the pornographic content it hosts,” said Exodus Cry founder Laila Mickelwait .
Mindgeek – based legally in Luxembourg but with offices in Montreal, London, Nicosia and Los Angeles – denies the allegations made in the petition, insisting that it does have thorough procedures for removing illegal content.
In a statement to the Guardian, Mindgeek said: “Pornhub has a steadfast commitment to eradicating and fighting non-consensual content and under-age material. Any suggestion otherwise is categorically and factually inaccurate.”
But other campaign groups insist that the criticisms of Pornhub are based on evidence of poor practice.
Some of the videos on Pornhub – as on other free to view sites – show extremely hardcore and violent pornography.
Campaigners say that this fact, coupled with the high prevalence of videos promoting sex with young teenagers – “teen” is one of the most popular categories on the site – means there is an urgent need to know for certain that videos are made consensually.
Sign the Petition
To get up to the minute updates on the progress of this initiative follow Laila Mickelwait on Twitter. To fund the fight against Big Porn and learn more go to www.Traffickinghub.com
Mindgeek says Pornhub does not host non-consensual or underage content
Add your comment