Two women claim to be “ashamed and suicidal” after videos were posted to Pornhub.
Pornhub sued after women claim videos were uploaded without their consent. The films, that were sexually explicit in nature, were uploaded without their consent they said. A legal case that has now been started in the US claims that more than thirty women are accusing MindGeek, a subsidiary company of Pornhub, of profiting from sex videos that are non-consensual.
Their lawyer stated that, if successful with their claim for damages, they could receive “hundreds of millions of dollars” and it would be a huge turning point for the pornography industry as a whole. Leigh Nicol, one of three British women involved in the court case, said she was filmed having sex aged 18 and, after an Icloud hack, the film was posted to MindGeek, a firm worth more than $1.2 billion.
She said “Even at this point, I look at myself in the mirror and I feel sick because that’s no longer private to me. Because a large part of the population has seen something that they shouldn’t have seen. There’s shame, there’s embarrassment, there’s disgust, sickness, there’s doubts that I’m not good enough.
I feel like no one would ever potentially want to actually be my future husband, because I’ve got these videos attached to me.” She said that she repeatedly tried to get the video taken off the site, only to find it would be posted elsewhere. She continued by saying “My question was why and how is this allowed. This isn’t legal.
I haven’t put this out there and I’m trending on some of the world’s biggest adult websites.” MindGeek said it will be investigation the allegations and stated “Pornhub has zero tolerance for illegal content and investigates any complaint or allegation made about content on our platforms.
The fact is, Pornhub has in place the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history, which include the banning of uploads from unverified users, expanding our moderation processes, and cooperating with dozens of non-profit organisations around the world.”
One American woman said her videos were filmed and posted to MindGeek after she was forced to perform sex acts.
She said “I was homeless and very vulnerable. If I didn’t make enough money, he would rape me and beat me and put me down. I didn’t ask to put those videos up there, I didn’t want them put up there and it shouldn’t be happening. There were times I was suicidal. I was very depressed and I suffered with PTSD from all this. I feel very emotional as this has been a long time coming, I want them to be held accountable, because this is women’s lives.”
The women are bong represented by lawyer Michael Bowe who said “This has been hidden in plain sight. You get away with it until the world’s eyes turn on you, and you don’t have an answer. I think it’s bigger than the ‘Me Too’ movement, it’s more serious. You have a handful of men who are making a lot of money exploiting God knows how many hundreds of thousands of women.”