Juno News - December 15, 2020
Will our "feminist" government do anything about PornHub?
Episode Stats
Words per minute
127.24393
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
sentences flagged
Summary
Pornhub does not only show videos of child sexual abuse and rape, but profits from them. Pornhub is like YouTube, but unlike YouTube, Pornhub allows videos containing rape and child sexual assault to be downloaded directly from its website, so even if a rape video is removed at the request of authorities, it may be too late.
Transcript
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An explosive article released by the New York Times disseminated devastating revelations that
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have been the lived realities of many survivors of sexual assault and abuse, which have been put
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on full display on the pornographic website Pornhub, which is based out of Montreal and
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owned by MindGeek. Although Pornhub puts on a cheeky front, it promotes and monetizes videos
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of individuals being raped, child sexual assault, footage from spy cameras, revenge porn, and
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amongst a slew of other disturbing material, women being asphyxiated in plastic bags. The article
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revealed that in a search on Pornhub's website for girls under 18 or 14YO, it leads to more than
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100,000 videos, not all containing footage of children being assaulted, but far too many do.
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Pornhub has recently offered playlists with names including Less Than 18, The Best Collection
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of Young Boys, and Under Hyphen Hyphen Age. Detailed accounts of teenage girls whose assault was
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uploaded onto Pornhub has resulted in their offenders being arrested, but somehow Pornhub
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escaping accountability. Now, Pornhub is like YouTube, but unlike YouTube, Pornhub allows
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videos containing rape and child sexual assault to be downloaded directly from its website.
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So even if a rape video is removed at the request of authorities, it may already be too late.
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The video lives on as it is shared with others or re-uploaded again and again to Pornhub.
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One testimony is of a woman named Callie, who was adopted in the United States from China,
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trafficked by her adoptive family and forced to appear in pornographic videos beginning at the
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age of only nine. Now, 23. Callie says, Pornhub became my trafficker. I'm still getting sold,
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even though I'm five years out of that life. All this isn't news to Canadian Member of Parliament,
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Arnold Vearson, who has been working on this file for years. In March of 2020, Vearson sent a letter to
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Prime Minister Trudeau urging him to address concerns over Pornhub. The letter stated,
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each time these videos are viewed and many have hundreds of thousands of views, the victims are
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re-victimized. This is deeply harmful to those exploited in these videos. The ability for Pornhub
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and other companies online to publish this content and in some cases to profit off crimes committed
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against children, victims of sex trafficking and sexual assault, is fundamentally contrary to any
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efforts to increase gender equality in Canada and protect women and youth from sexual exploitation.
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In the House of Commons, Conservative Member of Parliament Candace Bergen raised the issue of
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Pornhub saying Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, has known about the issue since March,
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when an all-party caucus asked him to help. Bergen stated,
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why has the Prime Minister done nothing to stop a despicable practice that is victimizing young
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girls and he is allowing it to happen right in his own backyard? Yet another letter was sent to
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Justice Minister David Lamedi by MP Arnold Vearson, as well as MPs and senators from different parties,
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calling upon the government to act. For a diverse coalition of Canadian members of Parliament to
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receive no actionable feedback from Trudeau's self-proclaimed feminist government, even upon
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the presentation of fact and testimony, as well as revelation of absolute human rights abuses,
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displays an absolute lack of concern and empathy for the victims and survivors who abuse has been put on
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global display. MasterCard and Visa have both stated that they will be blocking their customers from
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using their credit cards to make purchases on the pornographic website amidst allegations that Pornhub
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not only shows videos of child abuse and rape, but profits from them. For Visa and MasterCard to be
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taking credible action in reviewing their dealings with Pornhub, yet Canada's government choosing to
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project a dismissive attitude on the subject. It sends an insensitive and degrading statement to
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all those who are continually affected by their abusers who share and profit from their very abuse being
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circulated online. Pornhub is knowledgeable of many cases of rape and abuse that have been uploaded onto
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their site and yet refuses to remove them. They must be held accountable for every case where they
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continually share and profit from the absolute exploitation of individuals' violation of human rights.
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The world is watching. The government of Canada must take action. For True North, I'm Matea Myrna.