Defunding Sexual Exploitation
In a landmark case, we exposed the online pornography industry’s widespread monetization of child porn and rape videos and forced major reforms to help end this horrific abuse.
“Seismic”
Andrew Ross Sorkin, CNBC
“Visa said that a decision against the company would upend the financial and payment industries . . . .”
The New York Times
“Look at the judge’s decision. It’s really remarkable.”
Bill Ackman, Pershing Square CEO
“Mike’s strategy has been spot-on.”
Laila Mickelwait, Author of Take Down: Inside Fight to Shut Down Pornhub for Child Abuse, Rape, and Sex Trafficking
“These companies don’t think the law applies to them. We think it does.”
Michael Bowe, speaking at a U.S. congressional briefing
In a landmark case against the world’s largest online pornography company, Visa, and the hedge funds financing the business, we exposed the industry’s widespread monetization of child porn and rape videos and forced major reforms to help end this horrific abuse.
Our team represents over 200 victims whose sexual exploitation appeared in videos uploaded to Pornhub and other websites owned by its parent, MindGeek (now Aylo), the world’s dominant online pornographer. The lawsuit, which also names as defendants Visa and the hedge funds financing the business, drew significant public attention to this largely unknown abuse, established a model for other victims to pursue, and set critical legal precedent.
In a ruling that journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin called “one of the biggest stories in business,” we defeated Visa’s motion to dismiss and forced it and other major credit card companies and payment processors to require critical verification of age and consent on adult sites. Since our litigation and awareness campaign began, Aylo has been forced to remove over 10 million videos from its sites, accept a monitor under a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice, and suffer significant brand and economic harm for its egregious misconduct. We continue to pursue vindication for our individual clients and further necessary reforms.