Pornhub execs called to testify in federal committee as Ottawa looks at taking action

First step for class action against Pornhub A lawyer has sought permission to launch a $600M class action lawsuit, filed in Quebec court, against Montreal-based online giant Pornhub.

Montreal — Two executives at Montreal-based Pornhub have been called to answer for recent allegations before an Ottawa parliamentary committee -- where MPs also plan to ask if they intend to make reparations.

"I would... like to ask them how they expect to remedy the harm caused to individuals who never provided their consent for images and videos to be shared," said the Toronto Liberal MP who introduced the motion, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith.

Feras Antoon and David Tassillo were mentioned by name in the motion, which passed unanimously on Friday, requesting them to testify before the ethics committee.

The two are, respectively, CEO and chief operations officer at Mindgeek, which owns the porn giant Pornhub.

A New York Times investigation last week alleged the website publishes videos of child abuse, rape and other types of exploitation -- allegations Pornhub continues to deny, saying that "any assertion that we allow [those types of videos] is irresponsible and flagrantly untrue."

The company has since announced significant changes to how it operates, particularly cutting off its users' ability to download videos and also putting new limitations on who can upload their own videos.

But Pornhub has also faced swift backlash this week, including financial repercussions -- Visa and Mastercard announced Thursday their cards would no longer accept charges from the site.

Some have said the situation ultimately calls for greater government regulation, and Erskine-Smith said that's one thing the committee will consider.

"I expect we'll discuss whether additional public rules ought to be necessary," he told CTV News.

The two men's testimony should happen "as soon as Parliament resumes in the new year," he said, in the end of January or beginning of February.

Another MP, the NDP's Charlie Angus, tweeted that the committee would also ask survivors of non-consensual online porn to testify.

Pornhub hasn't yet responded to a request for comment on the parliamentary request and whether Antoon or Tassillo will comply.

Parliamentary committees have the right to request witness testimony and can legally summon a person as long as he or she is on Canadian soil.

While Mindgeek now has offices around the world and is officially based in Luxembourg, Pornhub's head office remains in Montreal, in the neighbourhood of Cote-des-Neiges, and at least one of the two men named still has strong ties to the city.

French-language network TVA reported this week that Antoon is in the process of building a luxury home bordering on a nature reserve just north of Montreal, near Saint-Laurent. There's less information available about Tassillo.

It isn't the first media investigation of Pornhub -- the UK's Sunday Times published one in 2019 -- nor is it the first time Canadian MPs have pressed for action on the company.

In March, and again in late November, letters co-signed by several MPs asked Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti to investigate the company.

Last week, immediately after the New York Times investigation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the problem is being studied.

Erskine-Smith said that aside from helping show whether laws should be changed, bringing the company before committee can also create pressure on its own.

One goal is "simply bringing public accountability to a company that has so incredibly failed to protect people on its platform," he said, including asking why the company took so long to answer the allegations.

"Previously, we've brought Equifax and Facebook before us when they've failed to protect privacy sufficiently, and this is even more concerning of course," he said.

Erskine-Smith isn't normally a member of the ethics committee, but he is currently serving on it as a substitute and said he wants "to become a more permanent member to see [privacy bill] C-11 through."