PORNHUB: Sale won’t stop lawsuits alleging child porn and rape

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Ethical Capital Partners sounds like a renewable energy company, not the new owners of xxx-rated juggernaut Pornhub.

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But it was announced Thursday that the Ottawa-based private equity firm bought MindGeek — the parent company of Pornhub and countless other sex sites.

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One thing the new owner will not be able to do is to wish away a growing number of lawsuits launched by women who have alleged they were victims of child pornography, sex trafficking or filmed without their consent.

“The essence of the lawsuit is that MindGeek didn’t do a good enough job. They knew there were genres, child pornography, rape and ultra-violent material on the site — and did nothing,” a source close to the matter told The Toronto Sun.

In addition, there were countless videos of women who were apparently drunk or passed out having sex, sometimes allegedly against their will or seemingly oblivious to what was going on.

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“They looked at it as content is king and were determined to be number one on Google, with the highest revenues and corner the market on porn,” alleged the source.

And because the action was so lucrative, companies like Visa and Mastercard processed the payments, no questions asked.

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Ethical Capital Partners said in a news release the company “must play a leading role in the fight against illegal content across the internet.”

Partner Solomon Friedman told the Financial Times that lawsuits targeting MindGeek, as well as criticism directed at the company, reflected a misunderstanding of Pornhub’s content safeguards, according to The Guardian.

MindGeek — founded in Montreal in 2004 and now headquartered in Luxembourg — maintains a large portfolio of adult properties. Since the allegations emerged, millions of videos have been removed.

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Mastercard and Visa stopped allowing their cards to be used on the Pornhub site in 2020 amid concerns that they were facilitating access to sexually exploitative material.

Friedman told CBC News MindGeek is turning over a new leaf and will work to keep youths safe and protect people’s intimate images.

“[And we will treat] all who participate — content creators and users — with respect [and] dignity, ensuring full, voluntary, informed consent,” he said.

Initially, legal eagles brought the lawsuits of 38 women forward in California as a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) case.

RICO criminalizes three activities: using illegal income to acquire, establish, or operate an enterprise; acquiring an interest in such an enterprise; and using an enterprise to collect a debt.

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Referring to the new Netflix documentary on Pornhub, Money Shot, the insider noted that the doc makes light of the RICO suit and seems to portray the women who sued and their lawyers as right-wing zealots.

“That’s just not true,” the insider alleged. “Some of the women were sex workers. Rape is not about consent, there’s no grievance against the porn industry in and of itself. No moral judgements, but rape is rape.

“And the Pornhub algorithm knows what people are looking for. Type in tiny teens, under 18, young teens, drunk, roofie, passed out, threesome, foursome… it’s like on YouTube, ‘like this? Then you’ll love that!’”

The source added: “The documentary was described as ‘muddled’ by the New York Times and that’s right. It seems to want to tell the plight of sex workers, but most are Pornhub ambassadors or stars. It’s a non-sequitur and it’s hurtful to the women who came forward.”

The source said no one has any illusions that pornography is going to go away since “it’s been around forever”.

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@HunterTOSun