Nearly 60,000 users accessed child porn site hosted by Toronto business: police

A server room at YesUp Media, based in Toronto. (Source: OPP)

Five people are facing a number of charges after a “big box store” of child pornography was busted by provincial police.

At a Thursday morning news conference, police alleged that a Toronto-based business knowingly hosted a website that supplied millions of child pornography images and videos to almost 60,000 registered users around the globe.

Police laid a total of 11 charges against five people. They’ve been identified as:

The accused face between one and three charges each, including possession and making available child pornography, as well as the duty to report it by an internet service. They have been released on promises of surrendering their passports and staying in Ontario.

A warrant has been issued for a sixth person, believed to be in Vietnam.

A tip to the Toronto Police Service first launched the investigation back in October of 2012. It focused on users of a massive child porn website that had millions of pieces of content.

That led police to YesUp Media, a web-hosting business, which allegedly housed 32 servers with a combined capacity of 934 terabytes.

“Not only have police reduced the number of 'customers' who abuse children online, we've removed the platform that held their monstrous content,” says OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique in a news release.

Another investigation, called Project Blackheath, targeted the people running the server hosting business. Police allege that the people running YesUp knowingly facilitated the sharing of child pornography for profit by hosting a website that did so.

That website existed for about six months back in 2012, police say, and was growing at the time it was shut down. Of its 15,995 registered users in 116 countries, 19,013 users paid for premium 30-day memberships.

Police say that, at the time, it was the largest data seizure in Canada. To his knowledge, Det. Insp. David MacDonald says it was the first time a web hosting service has been charged.