this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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A lawsuit filed by more victims of the sex trafficking operation claims that Pornhub’s moderation staff ignored reports of their abuse videos.


Sixty-one additional women are suing Pornhub’s parent company, claiming that the company failed to take down videos of their abuse as part of the sex trafficking operation Girls Do Porn. They’re suing the company and its sites for sex trafficking, racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and human trafficking.

The complaint, filed on Tuesday, includes what it claims are internal emails obtained by the plaintiffs, represented by Holm Law Group, between Pornhub moderation staff. The emails allegedly show that Pornhub had only one moderator to review 700,000 potentially abusive videos, and that the company intentionally ignored repeated reports from victims in those videos.

The damages and restitution they seek amounts to more than $311,100,000. They demand a jury trial, and seek damages of $5 million per plaintiff, as well as restitution for all the money Aylo, the new name for Pornhub’s parent company, earned “marketing, selling and exploiting Plaintiffs’ videos in an amount that exceeds one hundred thousand dollars for each plaintiff.”

The plaintiffs are 61 more unnamed “Jane Doe” victims of Girls Do Porn, adding to the 60 that sued Pornhub in 2020 for similar claims.
Girls Do Porn was a federally-convicted sex trafficking ring that coerced young women into filming pornographic videos under the pretense of “modeling” gigs. In some cases, the women were violently abused. The operators told them that the videos would never appear online, so that their home communities wouldn’t find out, but they uploaded the footage to sites like Pornhub, where the videos went viral—and in many instances, destroyed their lives. Girls Do Porn was an official Pornhub content partner, with its videos frequently appearing on the front page, where they gathered millions of views.

read more: https://www.404media.co/girls-do-porn-victims-sue-pornhub-for-300-million/

archive: https://archive.ph/zQWt3#selection-593.0-609.599

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[–] Damage@slrpnk.net 143 points 1 year ago (11 children)

It's quite simple honestly, if you profit off something, you have the responsibility to make sure it's legal. We all like platforms like YouTube where you can find anything you want, but the truth is that they're currently unsustainable when forced to comply with the law.

With the advent of AI there's hope for improved systems for detecting violations, but it doesn't seem to be there yet.

[–] hellothere@sh.itjust.works 82 points 1 year ago (13 children)

I agree that pornhub, et al, should be liable for abuse their platform distributes, but how on earth is AI meant to help in sex trafficking?

[–] BreakDecks@lemmy.ml 67 points 1 year ago (3 children)

A lot of people have this very naive view that if we just build AI overlords to monitor all human activity, we can somehow automate good behavior and make the world a better place.

Really we'll just end up with RoboCop.

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[–] NuPNuA@lemm.ee 44 points 1 year ago

As soon as you open anything to user generated content you run the risk that they're going to do something dodgy with that access. More than a decade ago I remember they added the emblem creator to Call of Duty and people were making swastikas within minutes.

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[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 110 points 1 year ago (16 children)

I always hated GDP videos cause the girls never looked like they wanted to be there, now I know why, they didn't. There's a lot of porn out there where the girl is very clearly not enjoying it or just laying there, I don't know how anyone finds that hot.

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly I'm running into that a lot with women, especially younger women. They all want to be "dominated" and it does nothing for me.

[–] PM_ME_FEET_PICS@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Consensual non-consent is also surprisingly common with younger women as well. Makes me very uncomfortable.

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[–] Hyperreality@kbin.social 72 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (100 children)

Given their videos were so highly ranked, the prevalence of coercion in the industry, and the fact that it's often impossible to tell if someone's been threatened behind the scenes, it's highly likely that most people reading this who have watched porn online have also watched plenty of videos of actual rapes.

This is a simple fact, but one which a lot of people would rather deny, rather than admit their part in perpetuating it, while wondering why watching porn makes them sad. Partly, I suspect, because deep down they know the truth of it.

[–] anarchy79@lemmy.world 70 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I wonder how many products you've bought in your life were made by child labor.

[–] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 51 points 1 year ago (7 children)

There is no ethical consumption under capitalism

[–] Hyperreality@kbin.social 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

Which is why I dislike people who attack those critical of capitalism's excesses for being hypocrites.

In the real world, most of us are hypocrites and part of the problem. That doesn't mean we can't try to be better or be critical of things that are bad about society.

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[–] Arotrios@kbin.social 64 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I avoid this by not watching porn that makes me sad. There's plenty of consensual, happy, joyful sex-positive porn out there.

While your point is valid about this particular situation (which is horrible and criminal on multiple levels), your overbroad generalization of porn and the implied assumption of guilt in the viewers is what's led folks to react negatively to your statement.

On a larger level, this kind of statement plays into the puritanical doctrines towards sex that paint it as a negative force, and subsequently leads to the twisting of a positive, creative act into a negative expression of power and rape in those that accept those doctrines.

Porn is not at fault here, nor are its viewers. Those at fault in this crime are the producers and publishers, who were well aware of the abuses happening under their watch, and deceived their viewers into believing they were observing consensual performance acts. I hope that these women get every cent and more, and it would be excellent to see a class action suit from Pornhub's subscribers arise in tandem to and in support of their complaint.

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[–] disposabletentacle@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago (7 children)

This is why I stick to hentai. No traficking or coercion or questionable consent there, just a bunch of nerds doing what they love.

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[–] mojo@lemm.ee 72 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The emails allegedly show that Pornhub had only one moderator to review 700,000 potentially abusive videos(...)

Well that'd be an interesting job to put on a resume

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

and here I was reviewing them for free...

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[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 67 points 1 year ago (73 children)

Can we have AI generated porn now ?

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[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 61 points 1 year ago (3 children)

If the allegations hold up in court i hope aside from the victims to be properly compensated that multiple heads go to prison. Being the head of an organized crime ring that is trafficking and rapeing people for profit, in this case at least all C levels of Aylo, should get a life sentence and all assets seized.

[–] BreakDecks@lemmy.ml 51 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Imagine a world where you read the article and learned that they've already been federally convicted. It was in the first paragraph.

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[–] kava@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

This is strictly a civil lawsuit against Pornhub (Aylo) AFAIK

I guess stuff could turn up in this trial that leads to criminal charges, but from what I understand nobody at Aylo was involved with the GDP activities. They were simply a popular channel on the site.

The people behind GDP did get charged and convicted with a long list of criminal charges including rape, sexual assault, fraud, sex trafficking, etc. Some got charged with like 20 years. Pratt, one of the founders went on the run and was on the FBI wanted fugitive list. He was arrested by Interpol in Madrid eventually.

Pornhub was/is a video hosting platform and the lawsuit is because they didn't react quickly enough to remove the videos. Legally speaking, they aren't responsible for the content assuming they make a good faith effort to remove it should it be found out it was illegal.

The law exists in this manner because otherwise social media sites wouldn't exist. At any point any user can post something illegal and then the website would be liable for criminal charges.

They had 1 moderator responsible for checking 700,000 videos. The plaintiffs are claiming that this means they weren't making a good faith effort to remove these videos.

IANAL but I think they have a legal argument although we'll have to see what happens. It'll be interesting to see how the ruling goes. Other social media websites are definitely watching with interest.

tryptamine

his case at least all C levels of Aylo, should get a life sentence and all assets seized.

I get not reading the article but did you even finish the headline lol?

Aylo wasn't the one raping people. They're the parent company of YouTube for porn. A video hosting platform. If you've ever watched porn on it, that means you unwittingly helped in perpetuating these videos too.

Aylo is going to pay heavily no doubt. But there's a reason why this is a CIVIL lawsuit.

[–] nicoweio@lemmy.world 51 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Was this after PH removed all content from non-verified accounts? If so, one might wonder how much it actually helped.

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[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For the full scope of what these sick fucks at GDP did to hundreds of women, read the DOJ sentencing document for the main actor/recruiter

[–] AdmiralShat@programming.dev 18 points 1 year ago

I've seen a lot of victim blaming in regards to this situation, where people just say it's girls who get paid and then feels like whores so they go cry about it

But a lot of those videos are legitimate rapes. Like, coercion is rape. Blocking the door, threatening violence, threatening to show their families, etc, is just rape.

[–] Wanderer@lemm.ee 26 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Think the free and open internet dream is dead.

Corporations are going to rule the world.

The amateur porn glory days are gone.

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 73 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Right cuz that’s the real tragedy here. Not that many women got raped, extorted, targetted, bullied had their livelihood and reputations ruined.

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[–] SCB@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

This is literally the golden age of amateur porn.

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