PornHub | Serena Fleets | A sex video of a minor under the age of 13 posted on Pornhub may result in a US visa case MindGeek | the world

Victim of sexual abuse sues Visa over videos posted on porn site Porn HubAfter a court in the United States ruled that it could go against the payment company.

Serena Flights She alleges that in 2014, when she was 13, a boyfriend pressured her into A revealing video he later posted on PornHub.

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Fleites Alleging that visaProcessing ad revenue colluded with PornHub’s parent company, MindGeekTo make money from videos of their abuse.

He had demanded to be removed from the visa case.

Fleites’ story was featured in the article “Children of Bornhub.” The New York TimesThe release prompted MindGeek to remove millions of videos and make significant changes to its policies and practices.

The victim’s allegations were summarized in a pretrial motion in California’s Central District Court.

million views

The initial explicit video, which was posted on PornHub without the victim’s knowledge or consent, had 400,000 views when it was discovered by the victim.

After learning about the video, she alleges she contacted Mindgeek and posed as her mother, “to inform them that the video qualifies as child pornography.” It was removed after a few weeks.

But users who downloaded the video re-uploaded it several times, and one of the reposts was viewed 2.7 million times, he argues.

The complainant alleged that MindGeek earned advertising revenue through these reposts.

Fleites says her life “spinned out of control” (she made several failed suicide attempts and her family relationships deteriorated) after, while staying at a friend’s house, an adult introduced her to heroin.

In order to fund her addiction, while still a minor, she made highly explicit videos at the behest of this man, some of which were uploaded to PornHub.

“Although MindGeek profited from the child pornography provided to Plaintiff, Plaintiff was chronically homeless or living in his car, addicted to heroin, depressed, suicidal, and without support from his family,” the report states. Judge Cormac J. Carney’s summary.

In this case, MindGeek told the BBC that the court has yet to rule on the veracity of the allegations and must conclude that all of the plaintiff’s allegations are true and accurate.

“When the court actually considers the facts, we believe the plaintiff’s claims will be dismissed for lack of merit,” the company said.

“Instrument of Crime”

At the current stage of the investigation, the judge ruled, “the Court can infer a strong possibility that Visa Network was involved in at least some of the advertising transactions directly related to Plaintiff’s videos.”

But the payments company argued that “Visa recognizes MindGeek as an authorized merchant and payments made to its websites do not imply Visa’s consent to engage in any form of sex trafficking.”

He also argued that a business relationship alone does not establish a conspiracy, according to the judge’s account.

But Judge Carney said that at this point in the retrial, “the court can comfortably assume that Mindgeek was helping Visa to monetize child pornography. It is.”

“Put another way, Visa is accused not only of creating an incentive to commit a crime, but of knowingly providing an instrument used to commit a crime,” he explained.

A Visa spokesperson told the BBC that the company condemns sex trafficking, sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse.

“This pretrial ruling is disappointing and misrepresents Visa’s role and its policies and practices. Visa will not tolerate the use of our network for illegal activity. We continue to believe that Visa is an inappropriate defendant in this case,” he added.

Totally intolerable

Last month, MindGeek’s CEO and COO resigned.

Following more negative coverage in a press article, top executives left New Yorker It examined, among other things, the moderation policies of the company.

MindGeek told the BBC:

The agency also said that any suggestion that it is not serious about removing illegal materials is “absolutely wrong”.