Another 62 Girls Do Porn Victims Sue Pornhub for $600 Million

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As deepfake technology has become increasingly capable of creating realistic imagery and easier to use, hundreds of websites and apps designed to create or host deepfake sexual abuse have appeared. Laws to limit the use of these tools and protect those targeted are lagging, even as the malicious use of AI has evolved to not just create new victims but to revictimize survivors. Prosecutors said that Garcia and others sometimes threatened lawsuits, canceled flights home, or to post videos online if women refused to continue with a scene. According to prosecutors, he tricked women into appearing in sex videos after promising them they would only be sold in DVD and not be distributed on the internet. In October of last year, the Daily Beast reported on a motion in which their attorney claimed to have interviewed 100 women with similar stories of fraud and coercion by GirlsDoPorn, and over a dozen accused actor Andre Garcia of sexual assault. “There is a high price to be paid by those who fraudulently exploit young women and forever alter their lives for profit,” said U.S.

Pornhub removed millions of videos

The mother of two began her fight against the online porn empire in early 2020, as horror stories began to mount. Police had been surveilling Pratt’s home in Hidden Meadows, California, which Pratt had not been to since summer of last year – having left behind a cat and several computers. These computers were later removed from the property by a couple of Pratt’s former employees, Fredrick and Efrain Jimenez, who were later charged with obstructing sex-trafficking enforcement. When questioned, they claimed to have not seen any computers inside of the home, which went against testimony provided by a pet-sitting service that Pratt had hired to take care of his cat. The brothers plead ignorance, but authorities believe that the two either destroyed or hid the computers somewhere in an attempt to hinder their investigation. Some it was found to have been transferred overseas, to bank accounts registered in the island nation of Vanuatu, while other cash had been converted into various cryptocurrencies.

• Recommendations may include sex education, counseling, and sometimes medicine and hormone therapy.
• Some of the women were allegedly sexually assaulted or forced to perform sex acts they had declined to perform, according to the FBI.
• Initially Wolfe worked in the office maintaining the computer servers, handling payroll and taking care of other routine office tasks, but he eventually began filming videos and taking a more hands-on role within the company.
• In August 2023, as part of the Pornhub network, Aylo launched UViU, a platform for creators to sell content directly to fans.[91] Designed with creator input, UViU helps diversify income and increase earnings.

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It would later be learned that they didn’t have any of the necessary permits to film adult content, and often smuggled the film and sound equipment to the hotel room in suitcases and other large luggage containers. Beginning to grow confident that this was a decent way to earn a nice chunk of change, Jane would speak to Jonathan again on FaceTime. He again assured her that nothing she appeared in would be posted online and that the shoot would be quick and painless – taking less than 30 minutes of her time. He began making final plans to fly her out to San Diego to film the scene, offering an all-expenses-paid trip to Southern California, as well as an opportunity for this young woman to make decent money without having to ask her mom for help (who was already helping support two other children). Jonathan made the final arrangements, and Jane prepared to be treated like a celebrity for a day. A short time later, she received a written response from an individual calling himself “Jonathan N” (who responded using the email address).

The plaintiffs said they endured harassment and ostracizing as the result of their videos being shared online, and all of them had suicidal thoughts as a result. “I was told this video went to a private viewer, and now it is all over the internet. I was lied to, and this isn’t okay,” another plaintiff said in a 2016 message to MindGeek. A third plaintiff told MindGeek “me and other girls are being brutally harassed.” Then, the women alleged, they were victims of an orchestrated system of harassment, threats and public humiliation by defendants who made sure friends, family, college and work colleagues saw the online films. “Do any contracts presented to models since the lawsuit was filed in June 2016 reference websites? Several of the women alleged they were lured to San Diego with online advertisements that made no mention of nudity or pornography, much less the GirlsDoPorn business name.

Garcia had reportedly been recruiting women for filming purposes up until his arrest in October of 2019. It was reported then that the contracts that he had been working with still had no mention of GirlsDoPorn or the videos ever being uploaded online. Weeks or months after filming the scene, these women would then learn that it had been uploaded to the website GirlsDoPorn; oftentimes, learning this information from their friends and family, as the knowledge of these videos began to set their personal lives on fire. Dozens of women reported their social lives falling apart in the wake of the videos being published, and countless among them would report being kicked out of school, disowned by their families, fired from their jobs, attempting suicide, or suffering some other form of life-altering alienation.

Enright ruled the defendants pressured the women to sign documents replete with “broad, vague releases couched in disorganized, complicated legalese,” which obscured the victims’ concerns over potential online dissemination. Most recently, she said, she reported to state authorities the Pornhub video showing a woman shouting in pain and asking not to be filmed. Mickelwait said that she has reported many hundreds of videos to law enforcement and anti-trafficking watchdogs.

In January, a California judge ordered GirlsDoPorn’s operators to pay nearly $13 million to 22 women who were tricked and coerced into shooting pornographic videos. Once the videos were posted online many victims contacted Garcia and his co-conspirators seeking to get their videos taken off the websites. As a part of the conspiracy, Garcia and others would at times coerce victims into completing the videos once they were underway. Garcia and other co-conspirators threatened to sue the victims, cancel flights home, and post the videos online, if the victims did not complete the sex videos. Hotel room doors were at times blocked by camera and recording equipment, and the victims felt powerless and unable to leave.

Garcia and his co-conspirator told the women that the videos wouldn’t be disseminated online, and would only be sold in private collectors’ stores in other countries. In October, prosecutors indicted former GirlsDoPorn employee Douglas “James” Wiederhold on five counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and one count of conspiracy to commit the same alleged crime. Though the indictment offers few details about his alleged conduct, related civil cases have revealed that Wiederhold created a GirlsDoPorn-style “mom” porn site for women over 30 years old. The group told the models they’d receive $3,000 to $5,000 for a one-day video shoot, court documents show. When the women declined to participate in the shoots because they feared the footage would be uploaded online, the group lied and told them the videos would “only be distributed outside the U.S. on DVD or to supposed private collectors overseas,” the documents said. Throughout the alleged conspiracy, Pratt and the co-defendants recruited hundreds of young women from around the U.S. and Canada who were aspiring models, court records show.

Website owners Michael James Pratt, 36, and Matthew Isaac Wolfe, 37, and porn actor Ruben Andre Garcia, 31, were sued by 22 women who claimed they were deceived and coerced into making explicit sex films without knowing the images would be posted on the internet. In 2019, a Maryland appellate court found 6-1 that child pornography laws apply when a teen is both the subject and sender of sexually explicit media. Under the ruling, where the judicial panel encouraged lawmakers to change the law, the appellate court upheld a lower court’s decision where a 16-year-old girl was convicted as her own pornographer. Authorities say Pratt posted clips of the women’s videos online as a method of attracting viewers to the website’s full-length videos, a scheme that allegedly netted the website’s owners more than $17 million in revenue.

• It was reported then that the contracts that he had been working with still had no mention of GirlsDoPorn or the videos ever being uploaded online.
• Explore research-packed articles, videos, and podcast—all detailing porn’s harms to individuals, relationships, and society.
• It argued that it was an open secret in the porn industry that Girls Do Porn was scamming and coercing girls as soon as it started in 2009.
• Reminders of this incident will continue to haunt them as long as the internet exists…
• The references were paid a fee for each victim they attempted to recruit, with additional compensation for victims who agreed to film a video.

Jane Doe 1 also gave evidence about the enormous impact online publication and subsequent WikiPorn leak had on her life. After the films were released details of the women were published on WikiPorn. Although I can’t always give good news, I am direct and do my best to simplify things for people to understand.