Women sue as porn site uses films ‘without their consent’
ONE of the world’s biggest pornography websites has been accused by dozens of women of profiting from videos posted online without their consent.
Pornhub is being sued by 34 alleged victims – including Scottish footballer Leigh Nicol – who have branded it a ‘criminal enterprise’.
They say the site, which has 130million viewers a day, makes money from exploitative videos including rape, revenge porn and even child sexual abuse.
Their lawsuit has been filed in California against its owners MindGeek, a £1.2billion company that runs dozens of adult websites.
The other claimants come from the US, Thailand, Canada and
Columbia. Among them, 14 said they were underage when videos were uploaded and a further three were victims of sex offenders.
Pornhub called the allegations ‘utterly absurd, completely reckless and categorically false’.
Miss Nicol, 25, one of three British victims, said a video she filmed of herself having sex aged 18 was stolen after her iCloud was hacked and posted on sites owned by MindGeek.
She repeatedly tried to have the video removed from Pornhub, she claimed, but even when it was taken down it would be reposted elsewhere.
The Crystal Palace midfielder was raised in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, and has represented Scotland in youth teams.
She said: ‘My question was why and how is this allowed. This isn’t legal. I haven’t put this out there and I’m trending on some of the world’s biggest adult websites.
‘Even at this point, I look at myself in the mirror and I feel sick because that’s no longer private to me.’
The legal action depicts MindGeek as a human trafficking crime syndicate ‘just like the Sopranos’. One of the bosses named in the action is Bernd Bergmair, 52, who lives in a multimillion pound rented home in London.
Last December, a New York Times investigation accused the company of being ‘infested’ with childabuse and raperelated videos – claims the site denied.
Pornhub is free to use but users can pay a monthly fee for extra content.
The women’s legal team is led by Michael Bowe, who has represented Donald Trump.
A spokesman for Pornhub said: ‘Pornhub has zero tolerance for illegal content and investigates any complaint or allegation made about content on our platforms.’
‘Just like the Sopranos’