this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
849 points (96.8% liked)

Technology

58143 readers
4258 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Damage@slrpnk.net 135 points 11 months ago (10 children)

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 77 points 11 months ago (12 children)

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 63 points 11 months ago (3 children)

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.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (11 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
[–] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 106 points 11 months ago (16 children)

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 31 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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 11 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] Default_Defect@midwest.social 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Under no circumstances would I be comfortable if someone wanted me to simulate rape or being overly dominant.

Its at best not what I'm into and at worst a way to catch a court date if the other person is an especially shit human, never mind how it throws clear communication straight out of the window.

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 21 points 11 months ago (4 children)

No I've done it. Done properly it's with full communication, clear limits, safe words and usually pre-setup and post aftercare which has been very cathartic and important time for my partners.

It's totally fine if it's not something you are into but done properly it's not something that is outside of communicated carefully and shouldn't be causing court issues cause it's definitely not something to just do without precise communication.

I get that isn't always reality but I just don't want people to think it's something that's inherently only harmful.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (15 replies)
[–] mojo@lemm.ee 68 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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 32 points 11 months ago (1 children)

and here I was reviewing them for free...

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 64 points 11 months ago (51 children)

Can we have AI generated porn now ?

[–] lloram239@feddit.de 21 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

We've had that for about a year now. Youtube is especially full of it (the somewhat SFW-kind).

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (50 replies)
[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 52 points 11 months ago (3 children)

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 50 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Imagine a world where you read the article and learned that they've already been federally convicted. It was in the first paragraph.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] kava@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months 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.

[–] blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months 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.

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 44 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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 17 points 11 months 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 20 points 11 months ago (5 children)

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 68 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Right cuz that’s the real tragedy here. Not that many women got raped, extorted, targetted, bullied had their livelihood and reputations ruined.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SCB@lemmy.world 28 points 11 months ago

This is literally the golden age of amateur porn.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›