Thirty-four women on Thursday filed a collective lawsuit in California against MindGeek, claiming that Pornhub has been providing pornography involving children and other videos, obtained without consent.
Several victims said they have found videos of them being raped and forcibly intoxicated by drugs. Many women mentioned that the videos on Pornhub were taken without their consent and at the time they were underage, according to an affidavit shared by CTV News Montreal.
After a request to delete the said videos, some plaintiffs claimed "Pornhub misrepresented that without a url code, title, or link there was no way for them to identify the video to remove it".
Others stressed that even if the videos were removed, copies of them can be spread via other web sites. One of the women reportedly "continues to be recognised in public, harassed, and called a "slut' or a 'whore'. This experience has caused Jane Doe No. 15 to suffer from severe depression and anxiety".
According to a statement from MindGeek, the allegations are "absurd" and "Pornhub has zero tolerance for illegal content and investigates any complaint or allegation made about content" uploaded on the platform.
"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", the statement for CTV News reads.
The web site announced last December that it had suspended the option to upload videos by unidentified users following a previous scandal and legal proceedings initiated by other women. Pornhub additionally claimed that videos are checked by moderators, but, according to CBS, the company doesn't require age or identity confirmation of those depicted in videos, and reportedly didn't try obtain their consent.
