An Alabama mother accuses MindGeek of posting videos of her 12-year-old son’s rape on Pornhub, which have reportedly been viewed more than 188,000 times worldwide, has learned The Press. She is suing the Montreal pornography giant in the hope of obtaining millions in damages.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The civil procedure, filed in October in an Alabama court, also targets the person who filmed these videos, Rocky Shay Franklin. The man pleaded guilty last May to several crimes related to the rape of minors, including that of the 12-year-old boy, and the distribution of child pornography.
In the court document we obtained, the mother’s attorneys detail how Franklin not only assaulted the child, but also posted the videos of his assaults on Pornhub without ever being disturbed. The “contractual relationship” between the rapist and MindGeek, owner of the website, is beyond doubt, they argue in the lawsuit.
“The defendants profited from the exploitation of sexual violence and human trafficking suffered by the plaintiff”, they summarize.
“My Favorite Nephew”
Rocky Shay Franklin created an account on Pornhub in May 2019, the document states. This website allows users from all over the world to upload their videos, just like they could on YouTube. The more popular their videos are, the more revenue they get from ads.
According to the lawsuit, Franklin described himself as a porn “actor” and sold the videos of his sex acts for between $5 and $20 to his subscribers. One of them, called “My favorite nephew”, has been viewed more than 50,000 times, it is said.
Other videos involving the child were titled “Another virgin teen”, “I steal a teenager’s virginity” or “An uncle’s secret”. These titles “clearly suggested that the child portrayed (in the videos) was a minor”, it is argued.
The lawsuit seeks to demonstrate the responsibility of the Montreal company in the dissemination of these images on the web. “MindGeek actively monitors which videos are published and how; discussions and comments surrounding particular videos and images; processes for viewing, posting and creating accounts. »
MindGeek is slow to react
According to the lawsuit, Alabama law enforcement ordered MindGeek to remove the videos from its websites on November 18, 2019, as they featured a minor. They had to repeat this request several times before the images were finally removed on December 13, almost a month later, it is said.
In an email sent to The Press, MindGeek said it is “aware” that a lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Alabama. “We sympathize with any victim who has suffered abuse from a trusted person, which is why we have zero tolerance for illegal material or bad actors attempting to upload it. In this case, we cooperated with the authorities, which led to the conviction of this criminal to 40 years in federal prison. »
MindGeek says it has “implemented the most comprehensive protections in user-generated platform history to mitigate the ability of criminals to successfully upload illegal material.”
The company operates one of the most popular networks of adult sites on the planet (with, among others, Pornhub, Youporn, RedTube and XTube), which received an average of 115 million visits per day in 2019. Several subsidiaries and MindGeek-owned entities are also named in the lawsuit.
On the web “forever”
The legal proceedings are being led by a consortium of law firms in Alabama – the state where the videos were filmed and distributed – and Georgia. Lead attorney on the case, Joseph Parker Miller, says he’s hopeful the court will agree to open a jury trial with the case.
“What makes it interesting is the fact that we have a criminal defendant who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 40 years in prison,” he said. The Press. We already know a number of details. »
Several steps remain to be taken before a possible trial. But one thing is certain, the child present in the videos is now heavily traumatized, says the lawyer for the Atlanta firm Beasley Allen Crow Methvin Portis & Miles.
“Once you post videos of a child being raped widely on the web, it will stay there forever,” he says. The crime scene will always be on the web somewhere. »
Laila Mickelwait, founder and president of the American organization Justice Defense Fund and instigator of the #traffickinghub movement, says she is horrified by the content of this new lawsuit. She launched a petition in 2020 to denounce the activities of MindGeek, which collected more than 2.5 million signatures.
The rapist of this 12-year-old boy was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but the owners and managers of MindGeek, who facilitated and profited from these horrific crimes on Pornhub, are free men.
Laila Mickelwait, Founder and President of the Justice Defense Fund
MindGeek has several hundred employees at its Montreal headquarters, a mirrored building located on Décarie Boulevard, in front of the famous Orange Julep. The company also has a network of subsidiaries, several of which are located in countries with favorable taxation, such as Cyprus, Ireland and Luxembourg.
This is an additional tile for the company, which faces several lawsuits and class action demands in the United States and Canada, since the publication of an investigation by the New York Times in 2020. At least 194 alleged victims are represented in different legal proceedings.
Visa and Mastercard severed business ties with MindGeek last summer, following a lawsuit filed against the group in California.