“I request that your offices conduct a full criminal investigation into MindGeek and coordinate with other local law enforcement agencies as necessary and relevant to hold Mindgeek’s leadership accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Krause wrote in his letter.
“Please protect vulnerable and victimized adults and children from this predatory industry that is fueling deadly and dangerous human trafficking.”
Krause sent his letter to the Texas attorney general and Department of Public Safety (DPS).
MindGeek is the parent company of Pornhub, a pornography website currently the subject of several lawsuits, many by women who claim it profits from videos of rape, underage sex, trafficking, and other non-consensual content. The MindGeek company owns or controls the majority of pornography on the internet.
“MindGeek is the most dominant online pornography company in the world. It is also one of the largest human trafficking ventures in the world,” claims one class action complaint by over two dozen women, calling the company “awash in criminality.”
In response, Pornhub called the lawsuit an “ultra-right wing effort to shut down the adult content industry.”
The attorney general and DPS have made human trafficking a top priority target in recent years. In 2016, state authorities raided the Dallas-based company Backpage, an online classified ad platform commonly used for prostitution. The attorney general’s office also employs a Human Trafficking Unit dedicated solely to investigating trafficking.
Just before the Netflix company was indicted in Tyler County for its film Cuties, Krause joined a number of Republican state lawmakers in condemning the film as “basically child pornography.” Unlike some other lawmakers, Krause did not call for legal or political punishments for the company.
Krause said his request follows a letter sent to Congress by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) calling for a criminal investigation into MindGeek and Pornhub.
“The survivors suing Pornhub deserve justice for the trauma they have endured from this billion-dollar corporation that has profited from their abuse and exploitation. Many of these survivors were minors when they were raped, sex trafficked, or when their images were uploaded to Pornhub without their consent,” NCOSE head Dawn Hawkins wrote of the class-action lawsuits against the company.
According to federal public access records, multiple class action lawsuits between anonymous women and MindGeek have been filed in 2021 alone.
Krause is chairman of the Texas House General Investigating Committee.
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