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submitted 1 year ago by tree@lemmy.zip to c/technology@lemmy.world

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

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 81 points 1 year ago

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 66 points 1 year ago

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 43 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 105 points 1 year ago

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 30 points 1 year ago

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 22 points 1 year ago

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

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[-] mojo@lemm.ee 71 points 1 year ago

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 33 points 1 year ago

and here I was reviewing them for free...

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[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 65 points 1 year ago

Can we have AI generated porn now ?

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[-] tryptaminev@feddit.de 61 points 1 year ago

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)

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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[-] blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] kava@lemmy.world 35 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.

[-] nicoweio@lemmy.world 49 points 1 year ago

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 45 points 1 year ago

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 24 points 1 year ago

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 72 points 1 year ago

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 28 points 1 year ago

This is literally the golden age of amateur porn.

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this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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