Credit cards: Decline Pornhub exploitation
From Freedom United
Trigger warning: this article has reference to child sexual abuse.
| “I sent Pornhub begging emails. I pleaded with them. I wrote, ‘Please, I’m a minor, this was assault, please take it down.'”– Rose[1] Rose was raped when she was 14 years old. As a First Nations girl growing up in Ohio, she was threatened at knifepoint and taken to a house where three white men raped her and filmed the assault.Shockingly, she later discovered that the videos were uploaded to pornography-sharing site, Pornhub, and had widely circulated among her classmates.[2] Pornhub is able to generate profits off videos – some of which show exploitation of trafficking victims – thanks to credit card companies processing payments from the site. This includes Visa, Mastercard and Discover. PayPal has already terminated its partnership with Pornhub as a result of a 2019 investigation by the Internet Watch Foundation that found 118 cases of child rape and sexual abuse on Pornhub.[3] That’s why we are urging you to call on these credit card companies to wake up to transactions linked to human trafficking and #DeclinePornhub. |
| Take action: #DeclinePornhub |
| For six months, Rose begged Pornhub to take down videos of her exploitation. It was only upon finally sending them an email threatening legal action that the videos were deleted. But victims shouldn’t have to be re-traumatized in order to get justice. Pornhub has already been pushed to issue a statement saying it has a “steadfast commitment to eradicating and fighting any and all illegal content on the internet, including non-consensual content and child sexual abuse material,”emphasizing that the tech community needs to put into place comprehensive safeguards.[4] Still, current efforts clearly aren’t enough and credit card companies shouldn’t be satisfied. As a consumer, you can send an email to Visa, Mastercard, and Discover to demand change. Rose isn’t the only victim. Twenty-two women were also deceived and coerced by Michael Pratt, owner of GirlsDoPorn, into performing sex acts on film that were uploaded to Pornhub.[5] The women sued GirlsDoPorn, winning a $12.7 million lawsuit against the company as the channel’s owners were charged with sex trafficking. Pornhub agreed to remove the content 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 nine million views. Even sex workers in the industry have criticized Mindgeek – the owner of Pornhub. Performers have called out Pornhub and Mindgeek for stealing their content, seriously impacting their livelihoods and “having destabilized and monopolized” the porn industry.[6] Not only does Pornhub have a piracy and trafficking problem, but it profits from sharing illegal content. By cutting ties with Pornhub, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover can show that they reject working with a company that is only concerned with generating profit, even at the expense of trafficking victims. It shouldn’t have taken Rose six months of begging to have her assault taken down. Join the campaign today and urge Visa, Mastercard and Discover to #DeclinePornhub. |
