More than 30 women are suing Pornhub, accusing the website of violating federal sex trafficking laws, distributing child pornography, racketeering, and other crimes.
According to NBC News, the suit alleges MindGeek (Pornhub’s parent company) and its collection of porn brands are a criminal enterprise that buys, launders, and uploads illegal content often obtained through acts of human trafficking and sexual assault.
In their suit, the women accuse MindGeek of using nonconsensual content to “become the dominant online pornography company in the world.”
The women say they were victims of sexual exploitation, rape and trafficking, and that they were victimized twice, “victimized first by their original abuser, and then repeatedly by the defendants in this case,” the suit claims.
Pornhub denied the allegations, describing them as absurd and reckless.
“Pornhub has zero-tolerance for illegal content and investigates any complaint or allegation made about content on our platforms,” the site said in a statement. “The allegations in today’s complaint that Pornhub is a criminal enterprise that traffics women and is run like ‘The Sopranos’ are utterly absurd, completely reckless and categorically false.”
