Pornhub Apparel comes under fire during coronavirus lockdown
Another week of staying home to combat the coronavirus means Pornhub Apparel continues to give away free Stayhomehub products.
Not everyone is happy about that, however.
Powered by Shopify, the venture, which launched in 2015, unveiled a range of coronavirus lockdown-related items a few months ago, with all collection sales going to the WHO Solidarity Response Fund. And it has been running a Twitter competition involving free items, most recently a pair of black joggers.
Enter a bunch of people who want to see the adult e-commerce venture shutdown. There were various references on Twitter to an online petition calling on the US Department of Justice to shut down PornHub for hosting videos of sex trafficking victims. This is closing in on one million signatures.
In March, Pornhub extended its free Premium service offering worldwide in the face of the coronavirus crisis and various countries being locked down.
“Stay home and help flatten the curve! Since Covid-19 continues to impact us all, we have decided to extend Free Pornhub Premium worldwide until April 23rd. So enjoy, stay home, and stay safe,” the company tweeted.
However, its critics blasted this as an attempt to silence sex trafficking victims complaints. “Pornhub has no reliable system in place to verify that those in the videos it hosts are not trafficked children being raped on film in order to line the pockets of its executives,” the petition states.
“Recently the Internet Watch Foundation stated that it alone had confirmed 118 cases of child rape, sexual abuse and trafficking on Pornhub; half of the videos were Category A level abuse which is the worst kinds of abuse,” it adds.
“What all of this means is that at this very moment, there could be hundreds, if not thousands, of videos of underage sex trafficking victims on Pornhub. We already have evidence, and it is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s time to shut down this super-predator site and hold the executives behind it accountable,” the petition concludes.
RTIH contacted Pornhub about this. You can read its response here.
Open for business during challenging times
The Covid-19 crisis has led to Pornhub Apparel temporarily disabling shipping to the likes of China and Korea.
It does, however, have fulfilment centres in North America and Europe “which will allow us to continue serving you to the best of our ability, all while taking necessary steps and measures to keep our employees safe during this time”.
Check out the store here and, if it’s your cup of tea, purchase mugs, caps, pillows, socks, phone cases etc etc.
