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Pornhub Hosts Spycam Videos of College Girls’ Locker Room

“I saw a video of you today on Pornhub.”

Imagine getting a text like this. Then learning a private moment showing your nude body was broadcast to millions of people without your consent. Unfortunately, a growing number of people are grappling with this horrific reality—and unless something is done, it will no doubt continue.

Last year, footage emerged from a secret camera placed inside a Limestone College locker room. The camera was placed inside a sink, and captured 5 different women’s soccer teams changing and showering when they visited the school. As you might expect, at least five videos of the footage were uploaded to Pornhub.1

The footage was found and reported, not by Pornhub’s so-called “extensive team” of “dedicated human moderators,” or by their “sophisticated” technology, but by a very concerned parent who found and reported the footage to the university. The video footage is believed to be 8 to 9 years old, and was eventually taken down, but only after the site was contacted by law enforcement.2

When I read another story like this it raises so many questions. First, why does it seem that Pornhub only removes videos like these when legal pressure is applied? That was Rose Kalemba’s experience, when she tried for 6 months to have her rape video removed to no avail. Pornhub finally complied, but only when she posed as an attorney.

Remember, Pornhub is profiting immensely from all videos hosted on the site and has no incentive to remove them, unless of course it’s to avoid an expensive lawsuit.

Now it’s fair to assume that, if it wasn’t for the right person seeing it, the Limestone videos would still be available today. Pornhub claims to have a “dedicated team” of people who review uploaded content. But consider that in 2019, 840 videos were uploaded each hour on Pornhub. I don’t care how dedicated you are, things are going to get missed. It is laughable to think Pornhub could keep up with such demand even if they wanted to.

Also, it seems that Pornhub relies heavily on “their community” to flag inappropriate content for removal. In response to the Limestone videos, Blake White, VP of Pornhub even said “Our community is a key component in identifying content that might violate our terms.”3 This is a ridiculous comment, and problematic for a few reasons.

RELATED: Trafficked at 18 Into the LA Porn Industry

First, it’s Pornhub’s responsibility to identify and remove illegal content on their site, not their viewers. Pornhub is the one hosting and profiting off these videos, not their users. To pawn off this responsibility to their “community” may be the most reckless business practice I’ve ever heard. It’s like a restaurant expecting their patrons to clean up after each other.

The term “hidden camera” is riddled throughout the site, as both a popular search term and a common video title.

White’s comment is essentially an admission that Pornhub cannot keep up with the monster they’ve created. Even when videos are taken down, a recent Motherboard investigation found that with simple editing, previously removed footage could be uploaded again, easily bypassing the “fingerprinting” technology Pornhub often boasts about. 4

Secondly, their “community” consists of many people who are searching, watching, and uploading non-consensual porn. The term “hidden camera” is riddled throughout the site, as both a popular search term and a common video title. Those in the industry understand the unfortunate popularity of voyeurism content. A popularity that Pornhub is taking full advantage of.

Video titles like “hidden camera in high school bathroom” are allowed on Pornhub despite what it obviously implies. These are titles that reviewers allow, probably in keeping with their commitment to protect what they call “sexual expression.” But what Pornhub treats as an opportunity for more traffic, the law calls a crime.

By Pornhub’s own admission, it is very difficult to determine if a video is indeed non-consensual porn, or a video staged to appear that way. Are they giving borderline videos the benefit of the doubt? How do they determine which videos are staged & which are real? These are questions they seem to have no adequate answers for. And while striving to gain as much traffic and profit as possible, they are in turn enabling criminal behavior.

Even the world’s most famous porn star, Jenna Jameson, tweeted “PornHub profits off of the rape and torture of women and children…”

RELATED: The One Video Pornhub Doesn’t Want You to See

Finally, why is Pornhub an outlet of choice for predators, voyeurs, and traffickers? This is an issue that Pornhub has yet to address and despite their defensive rhetoric, the mounting evidence tells the real story.

Whether it’s Limestone, the Justin Lee case, Rose Kalemba, the 15-year-old girl from Florida trafficked last year, the 14-year-old girl from Palo Alto, CA raped on Pornhub, the Girlsdoporn sex trafficking ring, the 118 cases of child sexual abuse confirmed by the Internet Watch Foundation, or many others, illegal content and Pornhub are intertwined—and this is well known both within and around the industry.

Even the world’s most famous porn star, Jenna Jameson, tweeted “PornHub profits off of the rape and torture of women and children. Take a stand against these evil monsters at MindGeek (their parent company) Stop the use of PornHub”5

The pattern is unmistakable. These aren’t isolated incidents. Pornhub has built a platform of abuse for profit, and now they are either unwilling or unable to manage it. People are getting deeply hurt, and MindGeek keeps raking in profit off their pain. Pornhub is emboldening predators and shirking responsibility, and until they are held accountable we will continue to read nauseating accounts of monetized abuse and pain.

But this is a unique hour. We have an unprecedented moment to strike back against injustice and greed, and shut down one of the world’s biggest vehicles of abuse and exploitation. We will send a message to MindGeek, and similar purveyors of exploitation, that we will not tolerate a world of systematic abuse. We need your fight. Visit Traffickinghub.com today to sign the petition, donate, and lend your voice to the growing movement!

Sign the petition or donate to help fuel our collective fight against Pornhub and keep this movement marching forward.

One of the greatest ways you can make an impact is by joining Exodus Cry’s dedicated community of Premium Partners who are giving $10/month, or more, to sustain this long fight till Pornhub is brought to justice. Will you join Exodus Cry? Start here.

Footnotes

  • 1. https://nypost.com/2019/10/24/pornhub-pulls-videos-of-female-athletes-in-college-locker-room/
  • 2. https://jezebel.com/hidden-camera-clips-popped-up-on-pornhub-and-the-proble-1839414523
  • 3. https://jezebel.com/hidden-camera-clips-popped-up-on-pornhub-and-the-proble-1839414523
  • 4. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9393zp/how-pornhub-moderation-works-girls-do-porn
  • 5. https://twitter.com/jennajameson/status/1278118867491930112
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