MindGeek Execs Show Up Unprepared and Unwilling to Acknowledge the Full Extent of their Role in Exploiting Countless Victims on Pornhub
|
|
"It should not be up to children and victims to request to have their content removed,"
(Arnold Viersen, Alberta member of Parliment)
|
|
In public testimony given Friday before a Canadian parliamentary committee investigating Pornhub, the parent company, MindGeek's CEO, Feras Antoon, said "... we recognize that we could have done more in the past and must do more in the future.”
Sadly, for the countless women and children who have been exploited by Pornhub's blatant disregard for their safety, we say that's too little too late!
December's explosive New York Times article confirmed that Pornhub. “... is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spycam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content". In response, MasterCard and VISA announced they would block customers from using their credit cards to pay for purchases and memberships.
MindGeek senior executives faced questions in the wake of testimony given earlier in the week from survivor, Serena Fleites, who testified about her repeated attempts to have Pornhub remove a sexually explicit video of her, posted without her consent when she was only 14 years old.
Ms. Fleites said it took Pornhub more than a week to respond to her request to take down the video. The ordeal led to her quitting school, getting into drugs and becoming homeless.
|
|
MindGeek CEO Feras Antoon, COO David Tassillo, Vice-President Corey Urman. |
|
During the intense committee hearing, Antoon testified "Every single piece of content is viewed by human moderators." He also said, "Even a single unlawful or nonconsensual image on a MindGeek platform is one too many. Full stop."
That BEGS the question: Why then, is Pornhub infested with illegal content? The world's largest porn site, over 3 billion dollars, and its parent company MindGeek, based in Canada, have knowingly gotten away with hosting and profiting from images and videos of child sexual abuse, rape, sex-trafficking, and non-consensual content for years now!
|
|
Points of Interest:
- The CEO or the COO would not reveal their salaries or personal wealth
- They did not know the number of complaints they received in year's past regarding illegal content.
- The COO would not commit to compensating victims moving forward
- When asked about content tagged as "teen," Tassillo testified that "in the adult world, 'teen' means 18-27".
- Execs refused to turn over internal documents relevant to their testimony (financial, transparency docs, training manuals and others); the committee informed the execs they have the right to request they be provided.
|
|
Tassillo touted, "I truly believe, in my heart of hearts, that we are the safest adult platform in the world right now, and if we weren't there, it would be much worse for people consuming this content."
Give us a break! We've seen the evidence! Videos of children and young women being brutally sexually abused, raped and tortured. Really MindGeek? We're not buying it!
Bottom line, the reason pornographers like MindGeek are getting away with their crimes against humanity, is because government's law enforcement agencies aren't aggressively enforcing the existing laws, not even in the U.S.!
We call on law enforcement to investigate and prosecute Pornhub and MindGeek for U.S. Federal Law Violations!
Please, forward this e-mail to your friends and share on social!
|
|
Finally, today is Safer Internet Day, where everyone is encouraged to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively.
With your continued support and partnership, Enough Is Enough will continue our frontline work to make everyday, Safer Internet Day!
The Team at Enough Is Enough,
Your Internet Safety Experts
|
|
We Can't Keep Children & Families
Safe Online Without You!
|
|
|
Enough Is Enough® is a national non-partisan, non-profit organization who has led the fight to make the Internet safer for children and families since 1994. EIE's efforts are focused on combating Internet p*rnography, child p*rnography, sexual predation, sex trafficking and cyberbullying by incorporating a three-pronged prevention strategy with shared responsibilities between the public, Corporate America, and the legal community.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
