By Mary Margaret Olohan
Daily Caller News Foundation
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday that would allow victims to sue websites like Pornhub following a report accusing the site of hosting an infestation of “rape videos.”
The Survivors of Human Trafficking Fight Back Act would allow victims to sue porn websites that have profited off their exploitation, according to a press release from the senator’s office. The bipartisan bill is cosponsored by Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, and Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis.
“Sites like Pornhub routinely escape responsibility for facilitating abuse, trafficking, and exploitation, making millions for themselves in the process,” Missouri's Josh Hawley said in a statement. “Meanwhile, the victims of this abuse have little recourse against these powerful companies, who thrive on spreading depraved content. Serious criminal penalties are needed to crack down on these tech executives who think they are above the law.”
If true, then Pornhub has nothing to fear from my legislation allowing victims of fraud, coercion, and sex abuse to sue them. Legislation coming tomorrow morning https://t.co/Ak2lG2Yreg
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) December 8, 2020
Pornhub announced changes to their website’s safety measures Tuesday afternoon, saying that the website had “banned downloads” and “made some key expansions to [their] moderation process.”
The changes came after Pulitzer prize-winning opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof accused Pornhub of monetizing “child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags,” in a Friday New York Times op-ed.
The popular pornography website has been listed as the 10th-most-visited website in the world, with 3.5 billion visits a month and profits from almost three billion ad impressions every day, according to Kristof.
Kristof’s story sparked backlash against Pornhub, prompting lawmakers like Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse to call for investigations into the pornography website. Major credit card companies also began reviewing their relationship with Pornhub.
Pornhub did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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