One Million People Sign Petition to Shut Down Pornhub for Alleged Sex Trafficking Videos
Fast Growing Global #Traffickinghub Movement, Now One Million Strong, Wants Pornhub Shut Down for Alleged Sex Trafficking Videos
SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 9, 2020 /CNW/ -- With signers from 192 countries, anti-trafficking expert Laila Mickelwait's "Traffickinghub" petition to shut down Pornhub for allegedly enabling and profiting from the sex trafficking and rape of women and children on the site has surpassed one million signatures. The campaign is powered by the anti-trafficking organization Exodus Cry and is based on numerous alleged cases reported in recent media of videos of alleged child rape and sex trafficking on the site. The campaign has been endorsed by over 300 anti-trafficking, child protection, and women's rights organizations in the United States, Canada, Australia, the UK, Europe, and Latin America. It has also been featured in hundreds of media articles both nationally and internationally, and inspired a large protest in front of the website's main office in Montreal, Canada on International Women's Day.
The campaign has compelled legislators in Canada and the United States to call for federal level investigations into Pornhub's parent company MindGeek. Inspired by the petition, U.S. Senator Ben Sasse released a letter to attorney general William Barr, demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice open an investigation into Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek. A multi-party group of Canadian members of parliament also sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asking the Government of Canada to investigate Pornhub and MindGeek.
The non-religious, non-partisan campaign to shuttter the world's largest porn site for allegedly hosting videos of the rape and trafficking of women and children has even drawn support from porn professionals in the adult entertainment industry, who released a manifesto and a change.org petition rejecting the website and its parent company MindGeek.
Olga Person, the president of Unizon Sweden said, "Pornhub is profiting from and enabling violence, rape, sex trafficking and the exploitation of women and children and must be held accountable. To achieve true equality, we must ensure that all women and girls live their lives free from violence and exploitation. This can only be possible if no woman or girl, or any human being, is trafficked or exploited in the sex trade and pornography industry. Unizon is a Swedish association of over 140 women's shelters, young women's empowerment centres and other support services working together for a gender equal society free from violence. Pornhub is the total opposite to a gender equal society free from violence."
Kate Isaacs, the founder of the UK-based organization #NotYourPorn said, "MindGeek, owners of Pornhub, have proven themselves to ignore the blatant non-consensual abuse content they have on their site. Their lack of moderation and irresponsible practices have allowed the platform to be littered with non-consensual and underaged content. We will continue to work with victims in the UK and across the world to ensure Pornhub no longer profits from their trauma. External regulation needs to be enforced by governments to send a clear message; clean up Pornhub or shut it down."
Vanessa Morse, CEO of the UK Centre for the End of All Sexual Exploitation noted, "Pornhub's executives turn a blind eye to the scores of illegal and abusive videos they host and promote, for the sole purpose of corporate profit. Pornhub is profoundly complicit in child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking."
The grassroots global movement to shut down the world's largest porn site was sparked by the February 9 release of an op-ed, written by campaign founder Laila Mickelwait, exposing the issue and calling for justice. The following day, the BBC published the harrowing story of Rose Kalemba who, at 14 years old, was taken at knifepoint and raped for 12 hours, after which the videos of her torture were uploaded to Pornhub by her attackers. She says she begged Pornhub to remove the videos for six months but it was not until she posed as a lawyer and threatened legal action that Pornhub finally removed them.
"All it takes to upload content to Pornhub is an email address?no government-issued ID is required. Pornhub doesn't bother to reliably verify the age or the consent of the millions featured in the videos it hosts and profits from, yet it monetizes those videos with no questions asked. The site is set up for exploitation and is infested with videos of the real rape, trafficking, abuse, and exploitation of women and children. We have evidence and it is just the tip of the iceberg," asserts Mickelwait. "Shut it down."
The full story, along with a way to sign the petition, is available at traffickinghub.com. For up-to-the-minute updates on the progress of the campaign, follow Laila Mickelwait on Twitter.
SOURCE Exodus Cry
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