The parent company of Pornhub and Redtube has settled a lawsuit with 50 women who claim they were victims of a sex trafficking operation.
The women said production company GirlsDoPorn (GDP) coerced them into having sex while being recorded and then lied to them about where the material would be shared.
The women sued Pornhub, alleging the company knew of the allegations but still continued a partnership with the producers.
The nature of the settlement was not made public.
“The Parties reached a mutual resolution to resolve the dispute and the terms are confidential,” Brian Holm, the lawyer who represented the women said in a statement.
GDP was a partner of MindGeek until October 2019, when the Department of Justice essentially shut the porn producer down after arresting and charging its senior staff with sex trafficking and other offences.
It was alleged the victims had sent Pornhub “complaints detailing the fraud and coercion they were subject to by Girls Do Porn,” yet the company continued the partnership until charges against GDP were filed by US authorities.
The porn industry is far from being harmless. Not only do they make use of the economic situations that pushes women to go beyond selling their labour, but their bodies as well, and they also endorse and are partnered with publishers known for engaging in sex trafficking. https://t.co/jHv6qbDLmY
— وقاص ضرار (@WSDirar) October 19, 2021
GDP allegedly advertised fake modelling jobs to lure their victims. The young women who accepted them were then told the work actually involved making pornographic videos.
They were then falsely given a sense of privacy by being told the job would be anonymous and their videos would not be posted online but were for DVDs of private collectors and international buyers.
However, their videos were later uploaded publicly onto pornographic sites including Pornhub, where the channel reached the top 20 most viewed and gained approximately 680 million views.
MindGeek approved this so-called professional studio as verified partners, claiming they did due diligence about them. This is why MindGeek is currently being sued by dozens of survivors of the Girls Do Porn case. There are many more survivors of this abusive industry.
— Dawn Hawkins (@DawnHawkins33) June 2, 2021
The original lawsuit was filed against MindGeek in December last year by 40 plaintiffs, which have since risen to 50, seeking more than $1m in damages and demanding a trial by jury.
Several involved with GDP have since been convicted, including recruiter, producer, and actor Ruben Andre Garcia, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November.
The FBI is also looking to arrest former co-owner, Michael James Pratt, who coerced young women into filming for the site and is believed to have victims’ numbered in the hundreds.
Earlier this month the maximum reward for information leading to Mr. Pratt’s arrest was raised from $10,000 to $50,000.
