Forty women identified only as “Jane Doe” have sued MindGeek, alleging the Montreal-based internet porn company knowingly profited from the sex-trafficking operation GirlsDoPorn. The suit, which was filed Tuesday afternoon in the Southern District of California, seeks punitive and compensatory damages of more than $80 million.
“Plaintiffs have suffered damages including, but not limited to, severe emotional distress, significant trauma, attempted suicide, and social and familial ostracization,” the complaint alleges. “Further, MindGeek has received ill-gotten gains by selling, marketing and exploiting videos featuring the Plaintiffs’ likenesses.” (MindGeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
The case builds off of a lawsuit that went to trial last year, which The Daily Beast covered extensively, on behalf of 22 Janes Does against GirlsDoPorn. In that case, the plaintiffs alleged the website had coerced, defrauded and intimidated them into filming adult videos. The production company had advertised well-paid shoots on Craigslist and similar websites to recruit young girls into adult videos, under the auspices of anonymity. GirlsDoPorn claimed the videos would remain private—never to be seen in North America or on the internet. But in truth, the company published the videos on their subscription sites and on many of the free porn distribution websites owned by MindGeek.
In a 200-page decision, a California judge sided with the Does, awarding damages of nearly $13 million. Around the same time, a federal attorney in Southern California charged the three primary operators of GirlsDoPorn, as well as three lower-level employees, with federal sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Two of the men involved were arrested that day—one pleaded guilty, the other is awaiting trial—but the company’s founder, New Zealand native Michael Pratt, fled the country. He remains at large and on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.
The latest case argues that MindGeek knew that GirlsDoPorn was “using fraud, coercion, and intimidation” in their business practices “as early as 2009, and definitely by fall 2016.” MindGeek contracted with GirlsDoPorn in 2011 and continued its partnership until the Department of Justice shut the production company down in October of 2019.
“If MindGeek did not know GirlsDoPorn was a sex trafficking venture before October 2019, it should have known for a great number of reasons,” the complaint states, “the most notable of which is that GirlsDoPorn’s victims sent MindGeek complaints detailing the fraud and coercion they were subjected to by GirlsDoPorn.”
The lawsuit further claims that MindGeek continues to profit from GirlsDoPorn, even after the business went under. “As of Dec. 12 2020, MindGeek still hosts victims’ videos on its websites, including Plaintiffs,” the complaint states. It goes on to argue that MindGeek has placed hyperlinked advertisements around the URLs for the victims’ videos that redirect to assorted pay sites—some of them link to Brazzers, a MindGeek property. Others link to third-party sites, like JerkMate.com.
“MindGeek knew it was partnering with and profiting from a sex trafficking venture for years. MindGeek also knew of the significant harassment and trauma GirlsDoPorn’s victims were enduring by its continued publication of the victims’ videos,” the complaint reads. “MindGeek simply did not care and continued to partner with GirlsDoPorn until it was no longer profitable because of the indictments and arrests. MindGeek’s actions were malicious, oppressive, and taken in reckless disregard of the Plaintiffs’ rights.”
Representatives for MindGeek did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The filing comes just one day after one of MindGeek’s most popular subsidiaries, Pornhub, began a massive overhaul of its content moderation policies. Between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday, the website removed approximately 10.6 million videos—the majority of their content—under a new rule that prohibits uploads from unverified users. The remaining 2.9 million videos on the website supposedly come from verified users in Pornhub’s content partnerships or model program.
