Montreal's Pornhub may not be subject to Canadian law: Ottawa

Canadian law may not apply to Pornhub, the federal justice minister said Monday at a parliamentary committee studying accusations the company, whose main office is in Montreal, has distributed exploitative and illegal material.

“The Criminal Code applies in Canada, and in the internet context there are a variety of different standards that might mean that a company is actually operating in another country,” David Lametti told MPS.

Mindgeek, which owns Pornhub, has 1,000 employees and an office in Montreal, and its chief executive and chief operating officer both live in that city, NDP MP Charlie Angus said.

“Mr. Lametti, in your opinion, would this qualify Mindgeek, as a Canadian company, subject to Canadian law?” he asked.

“I'm not going to comment on the actual details,” Lametti responded. “There have been differing opinions. As and I have pointed out, it can depend on where servers are located.”

Lametti, Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair and RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki testified at the House ethics committee as part of its study on the allegations against Pornhub. Last year, the company was accused of hosting videos involving child sexual abuse material and non-consensual content. Following a New York Times column that said the company was “infested with rape videos,” big credit card companies stopped their cards from being used on the site, and the company removed all unverified uploads, which was the majority of its content.

Lawsuits have been launched against the company in both Canada and the U.S.

Mindgeek has denied the allegations, telling The Canadian

Press in March it has “zero tolerance for non-consensual content, child sexual abuse material and any other content that lacks the consent of all parties depicted.”

It's often hard to determine whether a company is actually Canadian, Lametti said in the hearing.

The application of Canada's Criminal Code and any investigations or prosecutions “are independent functions and their application in an international context is not always as clear as you would have it be, even if that's what we would both like,” he told Angus.

Mindgeek previously maintained that it doesn't fall under Canadian law at a 2018 meeting with the RCMP, the committee heard.

Canada's mandatory reporting act stipulates that any individual providing an internet service to the public must report child pornography and preserve computer data related to that notification. The ministers and officials were asked why Mindgeek has never made such a report in Canada.

“It's very difficult for the RCMP to monitor and ascertain compliance with the mandatory reporting act, particularly in the cases where the companies have a complex international structure and the data is stored in multiple jurisdictions. Those services flow through the internet and they transcend international borders,” Lucki said.

The RCMP met with Mindgeek in 2018 to help them with software that automatically identifies exploitative material, and the RCMP raised the mandatory reporting act, she said.

“And at the time, they had said that it doesn't apply to them,” Lucki said, adding Mindgeek was reporting the child abuse content, but to authorities in the U.S., who would then provide it to Canada. The RCMP now gets monthly reports about what Mindgeek has reported in the U.S.

“It's kind of a non-traditional way that it should be done, but the bottom line is we are getting reports,” Lucki added.

“This whole piece of jurisdiction still baffles me. Like, why, why would they not report it to Canada?” Conservative MP Arnold Viersen asked. Lucki responded that it was due to the company's servers.

During the meeting, Blair indicated the new regulator that will be created in upcoming legislation to deal with online harms will help in the effort to combat illegal material.

“We recognize that also there's much more work to do. And that's why we will introduce legislation to create a new regulator that will ensure that online platforms remove harmful content,” he said.

A month ago, more than 70 MPS and senators sent a letter to the RCMP asking for a criminal investigation into Mindgeek. That followed a similar request in March from more than 100 victims of sexual exploitation.

Lucki said the RCMP'S policy is not to comment about whether investigations are underway, in order not to compromise any potential investigation.

“What I can say is that specifically in regards to Pornhub or Mindgeek, the call for criminal investigation is under review,” she said. “We've been working with police of jurisdiction in that case, and if there is the necessary information that leads us to launch the investigation, the investigation will be launched unequivocally.”

If that investigation leads to evidence, charges will be laid, Lucki said.

THIS ... JURISDICTION STILL BAFFLES ME . ... WHY WOULD THEY NOT REPORT IT TO CANADA?