Paul Tuns

An open letter to the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics signed by 104 survivors, 525 NGO’s from 65 countries regarding the “Protection of Privacy and Reputation on Platforms such as Pornhub” is a comprehensive indictment of PornHub’s corporate owners MindGeek, and its executives. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has posted the complete letter, with footnotes and all signatories, on their website. The letter begins:

We applaud the Canadian Government for working to hold MindGeek accountable for facilitating and profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation. MindGeek, which owns Pornhub and at least 160 other hardcore pornography websites, has received criticism for facilitating and profiting from criminal acts including sex trafficking, filmed sexual abuse of children, and nonconsensually recorded and distributed pornography. By investigating these criminal acts, the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics has set an example of a commitment to the protection of the rights of some of the most vulnerable members of society, particularly children who are victims of or at risk of sexual abuse.

As experts, survivors, and advocates combating sexual violence and exploitation, we found the February 5, 2021, testimonies of MindGeek executives Feras Antoon, David Tassillo and Corey Urman to the Committee notably egregious in their failure to take responsibility for the destruction of countless victims’ lives over the past decade.

Antoon, Tassillo and Urman appeared to be obfuscating their current and historical business practices in the obtaining, distributing and advertising of child sexual abuse images, rape, trafficking and non-consensually recorded and/or distributed pornography. MindGeek executives appeared to mislead the Committee and the public regarding MindGeek’s role in enabling and profiting from a range of criminal content that was uploaded and distributed through their platform

Based on the evidence, including testimony of victims and the potentially criminally implicating testimony of MindGeek executives on February 5, it appears that MindGeek has violated Canada’s child protection laws, particularly child pornography distribution and reporting laws as written in the Criminal Code of Canada. For example, MindGeek executives stated in the hearing that their company reviews each video before it is publicly posted, thus implying that they knowingly and willfully distributed child sexual abuse materials. It also appears that MindGeek has violated Canada’s laws on publication of intimate images without consent. MindGeek must be held accountable. The Canadian Government must urge law enforcement agencies to investigate MindGeek. Anything less than full legal accountability is an injustice to victims whose lives have been damaged as a result of MindGeek’s knowing and willful actions.

There are currently two pieces of legislation legislation concerning pornography. Bill C-219: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (sexual exploitation) “amends the Criminal Code to increase sentences for offences of sexual exploitation and to add as an aggravating circumstance the fact that the victim is a person with a disability for the purpose of sentencing.” Bill S-203: An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit materials would, if it passes, make it a criminal offence to make sexually explicit material available, for commercial purposes, to minors online, in effect requiring PornHub and hundreds of similar pornographic sites to take measures to ensure their viewers are adults.

To  support these bills, see the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s pages on C-219 and S-203.

But as the open letter excerpted above makes clear, more needs to be done to make purveyors of pornographic material, especially content that is uploaded without the consent of those depicted (content that often the result of criminal activity) accountable for the harm they cause to survivors of exploitation.

Paul Tuns is editor of The Interim.