Sixty-two alleged victims of sex trafficking filed a lawsuit against Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, accusing the company of illegally publishing their videos while ignoring repeated takedown requests.
“For over a decade, GirlsDoPorn used force, fraud, and coercion to get hundreds of high school and college-aged women to film pornographic videos that GirlsDoPorn sold on the Internet.”
In order to locate potential victims, GirlsDoPorn published ads in North America, seeking young women for clothed modeling gigs, the lawsuit states. Selected women received emails offering thousands of dollars for an “adult gig,” following which, the company gauged their willingness to do seminude modeling.
For women who seemed comfortable, GirlsDoPorn would then make adult film offers, claiming that the videos would be released on DVDs overseas, often in Australia. They were assured that the videos would never be published online.
The company would book a flight and hotel during the initial call with the victims, emailing them details, “adding further pressure to agree to fly to San Diego” where the film would be shot, the suit says.
GirlsDoPorn also used paid “reference models” who would allegedly lie to prospective victims that the videos would never be published online.
Once in San Diego, they would be given contracts to sign. The company would not give victims the time to read through contracts, the lawsuit states.
“GirlsDoPorn used veiled and direct threats throughout the entire process to ensure victims complied with their demands. GirlsDoPorn often blockaded the hotel room doors with furniture or camera equipment, so the idea of leaving was never an option,” the lawsuit said. “In some instances, GirlsDoPorn’s cameraman and actor physically blocked the door if the victim tried to leave.”
If a victim refused to film or stopped filming, GirlsDoPorn would falsely claim that the contract they signed required them to perform the act, failing which they would be sued. In one incident, a victim was allegedly given a death threat if she did not fly to San Diego and film a video.
After the final content was made and published online, GirlsDoPorn engaged in an “aggressive marketing strategy,” the complaint says. The company allegedly sent video trailer links to social media accounts of the victims’ friends, family, co-workers, employers, teachers, and classmates.
“GirlsDoPorn believed that people who knew the victims were much more likely to purchase a subscription to view the full-length video on GirlsDoPorn.com and GirlsDoToys.com,” the lawsuit states.
Aylo’s Video Distribution
In 2011, Aylo partnered with GirlsDoPorn to market the venture’s videos on its websites, including Pornhub. According to a partnership agreement, Aylo provided dedicated account representatives to GirlsDoPorn who “actively promoted” the videos, said the lawsuit. Soon after it began airing these videos, Aylo started receiving takedown requests from victims of GirlsDoPorn.In one takedown request, a victim wrote: “I WAS SCAMMED. THIS COMPANY LIED TO ME ABOUT THIS BEING ON THE INTERNET! THEY TOLD ME IT WOULD ONLY BE AVAILIBLE ON DVD IN AUSTRALIA. MY WORK FRIENDS AND FAMILY ALL KNOW AND THIS VERY LINK IS BEING SENT AROUND. I WANT TO JUST DIE.”
The victims also hired takedown companies that submitted requests to Aylo to delete the videos, pointing out that the women had not given the consent to publish them online. “Hundreds, if not thousands” of such notices were sent to Aylo, the lawsuit states.
Despite the requests from victims, Aylo refused to delete the videos, noted the lawsuit.
“Aylo knew the victims’ claims of force, fraud, and coercion were legitimate. It nevertheless intentionally ignored the requests, and kept the highly profitable videos published on its sites, despite the harm Aylo knew it would cause the victims.”
GirlsDoPorn shut down in 2019 after the FBI arrested most of the venture’s operators. Only then did Aylo remove the videos from the websites.
However, “this was too little too late. Aylo had already spent a decade spreading the videos to every corner of the globe where they could be downloaded for free with the click of a button.”
The lawsuit is seeking over $5 million in compensatory damages and more than $5 million in punitive damages per victim.
According to the lawsuit, the videos upended victims’ lives. As videos went viral, the victims became “pariahs in their own communities.” They were ostracized and ridiculed by family, friends, classmates, teachers, and clergy members. “To this day, some victims’ parents will not speak with them.”
“Many victims lost their jobs, and some were expelled from college. When they built up the courage to go out in public, strangers made suggestive comments about the videos or bluntly propositioned them for sex. Because of this, every victim became suicidal and depressed. Nearly every victim has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.”
Some of the victims had earlier filed a lawsuit against GirlsDoPorn, with a court deciding in their favor in 2020. The judge in the case found that GirlsDoPorn had used force, fraud, and coercion as part of its operations.
Satanist Groups Targeting Children Online
Along with young women, vulnerable children and teens are also targeted online for exploitation, often by criminal organizations.The FBI issued a warning in September about Satanist-influenced violent online groups that target children to get them to commit self-harm, suicide, or engage in sexual acts on video.
These groups use many names like 764, 676, CVLT, Court, Kaskar, Harm Nation, Leak Society, and H3ll, according to a Sept. 12 public service announcement by the FBI. The names keep changing as the groups evolve and form new subgroups. They operate on social media and mobile apps.
The criminals target minors between the ages of 8 and 17, especially those identifying as LGBT; racial minorities; and minors who suffer from mental health issues like suicidal ideation or depression, the agency stated.
In order to gain access to the groups, potential members have to livestream or upload videos showcasing their minor victims committing self-harm, suicide, murder, harming animals, or other violent acts. “The key motivators of these groups are to gain notoriety and rise in status within their groups.”
“These groups use threats, blackmail, and manipulation to control the victims into recording or live-streaming self-harm, sexually explicit acts, and/or suicide; the footage is then circulated among members to extort victims further and exert control over them,” the announcement said.
In its announcement, the FBI said that the criminal groups use blackmail tactics like swatting and doxxing to get minors to do what they want.
Swatting is the practice of making a prank call to the police or an emergency service with the aim of dispatching armed police officers to the target’s house. Doxxing involves obtaining and publishing personally identifiable information about a target on the internet, usually with malicious intent.
The criminals also threaten minors by releasing their sexually explicit content to family, friends, or strangers online.
Minors may be forced into self-harm activities like cutting, stabbing, or fansigning, which refers to cutting or writing specific numbers, symbols, letters, or names on the body.
“Many members have an end-goal of forcing the minors they extort into committing suicide on live-stream for their own entertainment or their own sense of fame,” the FBI said.
Arrest Leading to 764
Federal authorities first encountered 764 while they were investigating social media posts made by Angel Almeida, a 23-year-old from the Queens borough of New York City, the New York Post reported. Mr. Almeida came under the FBI’s radar after an anonymous tipster reported his social media accounts, which contained images of violence targeted at animals and children, according to The Guardian. He was arrested in November 2021.While searching Mr. Almeida’s apartment, investigators came across books related to the O9A and a flag bearing the insignia of the “Tempel ov Blood,” an American offshoot of the O9A. Authorities also found hundreds of child sexual abuse materials stored on four devices.
An O9A “blood covenant” was also found which featured a blood-smeared drawing of a hooded figure and four of the organization’s deities. The bottom of the blood covenant featured an oath by the organization.
Following his arrest, Mr. Almeida was charged with possession of a firearm, and later with charges of child pornography and child exploitation activities.
He is alleged to have coerced a teen girl into performing sexual acts with an older man. Mr. Almeida is also alleged to have manipulated another girl to cut herself, record it, and send the recording to him, The Guardian reported. His trial is set to begin in December and could result in a maximum punishment of life in prison.
In the United States, authorities have previously arrested American individuals in connection with O9A.
Protecting Personal Info
In the Sept. 12 announcement, the FBI advised people to “exercise caution” when they send messages or share personal photos, videos, or other identifying information on social media, dating apps, and other such websites.“Although seemingly innocuous when posted or shared, the images and videos can provide malicious actors an abundant supply of content to exploit for criminal activity,” it said. Getting targeted by such groups can leave the minors “vulnerable to embarrassment, harassment, extortion, financial loss, or continued long-term re-victimization.”
The FBI asked parents to monitor their children’s online activity and discuss risks involved in sharing personal content. Parents can consider running frequent online searches on their children’s information, like full name and address, to identify how exposed their kids are on the internet.
The agency also asked individuals to be vigilant when engaging in video conversations or sending images to people they do not personally know.
“Be especially wary of individuals who immediately ask or pressure you to provide them photos or videos. Those items could be screen-captured, recorded, manipulated, shared without your knowledge or consent, and used to exploit you or someone you know,” the FBI said.
The agency recommended that people keep an eye out for warning signs of self-harm or suicide, which can include sudden behavioral changes, sudden changes in appearance, scars or bruises, wearing long sleeves or pants in hot weather, and threatening to take one’s own life.
