Pornhub is being sued by over 30 women who accuse it of running a 'criminal enterprise'
The women claim the videos were uploaded to the adult video streaming site without their consent and have lodged a civil suit in California, US.
FollowOver 30 women are suing adult video streaming site Pornhub over alleged claims of exploitation using explicit videos of them without their consent.
The women claim the videos were uploaded to Pornhub without their consent and have lodged a civil suit in California, US.
The California lawsuit accuses Mindgeek, the owner of the Pornhub, of running a 'criminal enterprise'.
Responding with a statement, the website has called the allegations 'utterly absurd, completely reckless and categorically false'.
Pornhub is a free-to-use website but has the option of a paid monthly subscription which allows the use of higher quality videos and extra content.
The content on the website is mostly uploaded by its own community and is publicity viewable without an account, though the company has said that every video is reviewed by human moderators.
The website received 42 billion site visits in 2019, with 6.83 million videos uploaded, but it did not specify how many moderators it employed.
"Pornhub has zero-tolerance for illegal content and investigates any complaint or allegation made about content on our platforms," the company told the BBC.
However, the site does not require its users to verify the age or identity of those in the videos. According to CBS, the site also does not seek to confirm the consent of people who appear in the videos posted on the site.
One of the women participating in the suit told CBS that she was only 17 when her boyfriend coerced her in to make a nude video, and the video was later posted to the website without her consent, and she found out about it from a friend.
Pornhub, however, said that it takes every complaint regarding the abuse of its platform seriously, including those of the plaintiffs in this case.
It added that it did not plan to let the hyperbolic language in the lawsuit distract from the fact that Pornhub has in place a safety and security policy, which it claims surpasses that of any other major platform on the Internet.
This is not the first time the website has faced such claims. Last year, a New York Times investigation accused the site of being infested with child abuse and rape-related videos. The website had rejected the claims then.
