Ask credit card companies to reject Pornhub
By Miriam Karmali, Freedom United
Trigger warning: this article has descriptions of child sexual abuse which may be upsetting for some readers.
Pornhub is one of the world’s largest porn sites and it’s been getting away with profiting from the trafficking of minors. But if we can get credit companies to stop allowing their cards to be used, it will be difficult for Pornhub to continue to operate. This is because Pornhub relies on credit companies to process payments and therefore generate profit.
Mounting evidence suggests Pornhub is increasing its profits off the back of the extreme sexual abuse and torture of trafficking victims.Visa, Mastercard and Discover all process payments on Pornhub’s site, facilitating the upload of content by traffickerswhere it can then be viewed and consumed by millions.
That’s why we’re calling on the Freedom United community to power the Traffickinghub campaign[1] and urge credit card companies to take responsibility and #RejectPornhub
Owned by porn giant, Mindgeek, Pornhub has repeatedly come under fire[2] for its refusal to implement strong safeguarding measures to ensure that real footage of the extreme sexual abuse and torture of trafficking victims doesn’t end up on the site, ready to be consumed by billions.
There have been several shocking cases recently of trafficking and child rape videos that were hosted on Pornhub. A 15-year-old girl who had been missing for a year was finally found after her mother was tipped off that her daughter was being featured in videos on the site — 58 such videos of her rape and sexual abuse were discovered on Pornhub.[5]
By cutting ties with Pornhub, credit card companies can stop facilitating this horrific abuse. Tell credit card companies to take a stand against Pornhub and end their complicity in the trafficking of minors for profit.
In February 2020, the BBC reported the harrowing story of 14-year-old Rose Kalemba from Ohio, who was taken at knifepoint and raped for 12 hours before the crime scene videos of her abuse were uploaded to Pornhub.[6] Rose said that she pleaded with Pornhub to remove the videos of her rape and torture for months, and it wasn’t until she posed as a lawyer and threatened legal action that Pornhub finally took them down.
Twenty-two women were also deceived and coerced by Michael Pratt, owner of GirlsDoPorn, into performing sex acts on film that were subsequently uploaded to Pornhub.[7]
These women sued GirlsDoPorn and won a $12.7 million lawsuit against the company, and Pornhub agreed to remove the GirlsDoPorn official Pornhub channel. But months later, these videos were still being shared on Pornhub, forcing victims to relive their trauma. One woman found that a video she appeared in had amassed over 9 million views.
These are not isolated cases. In 2019, the Internet Watch Foundation stated that it alone had confirmed 118 cases of child rape and sexual abuse on Pornhub—half of the videos were Category A level abuse, which includes penetration and sadism.PayPal terminated its partnership with Pornhub as a result.
Call on Visa, Mastercard and Discover to do the same.
Pornhub has no reliable system in place to verify the age or consent of those featured in pornographic content, nor is there a system in place to determine whether the content being uploaded is, in fact, depicting victims of trafficking.
Shockingly, all you need is an email address to create a user account on Pornhub. The account sharing videos showing a trafficked 15-year-old girl in 58 videos had even been verified by Pornhub.
The lack of safeguarding measures has been an ongoing problem. Sex workers in the industry have long criticized Mindgeek[3] for its lack of protection measures and its reluctance to ensure performers’ content on its sites including Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn, isn’t pirated.
Performers continue to call out Pornhub and Mindgeek for stealing their content, seriously impacting their livelihoods and “having destabilized and monopolized” the porn industry.[4] Not only does Pornhub have a piracy and trafficking problem, but it benefits from sharing illegal content.
Now, we’re calling on major credit card companies to cut ties with Pornhub and reject working with a company that is only concerned with generating profit, even at the expense of trafficking victims.
We’ve written to Visa, Mastercard and Discover letting them know about Pornhub’s links to trafficking and how they can avoid being complicit and take a stand by terminating their partnership with Pornhub.
Send credit card companies a message today and ask them to reject Pornhub and trafficking.
With an estimated 42 billion visits and 6 million videos uploaded every year, and no robust safeguarding measures in place, it is almost impossible for Pornhub to ensure that traffickers are not uploading criminal content to their site. Furthermore, Pornhub has shown clear reluctance to remove content flagged as rape and trafficking, despite pleas from survivors.
But credit card companies can take a stand and avoid being complicit in the trafficking of minors for profit by cutting ties with Pornhub for good.
Join the campaign today and urge all credit card companies to reject Pornhub and trafficking.
REFS:
[1] https://traffickinghub.com/
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/09/worlds-biggest-porn-site-under-fire-over-videos-pornhub
[3] https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/kz4899/free-youporn-redtube-pornhub-piracy-alessa-savage-ukcutegirl
[4] https://theoutline.com/post/7582/pornhub-latches-on-to-causes-support-sex-workers?zd=5&zi=bggbpfcr
[5] https://www.newsweek.com/florida-man-arrested-after-58-porn-videos-photos-link-him-missing-underage-teen-girl-1467413
[6] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-51391981
[7] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9393zp/how-pornhub-moderation-works-girls-do-porn
