Several streaming portals of the porn conglomerate MindGeek have been sued by a New York-based man named Yaroslav Suris. The man accuses the owner of Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn of discriminating against deaf people like him because the porn movies on the portals do not offer subtitles. He says that equal enjoyment is not possible. Thus, according to Suris, Mindgeek’s platforms violate a US law for the protection of disabled people.
The New Yorker Yaroslav Suris who is deaf is well known for his lawsuits against companies’ discriminatory behaviour towards people who cannot hear or are dependent on subtitles for other reasons. Suris has sued for damages on several occasions, and this time, too, in addition to the activist, headline-grabbing message of such a lawsuit, it seems that a lot of money is at stake.
Suris has previously sued other media companies. These include the US news channel Fox News and the New York Post. As with the lawsuits against these companies, his lawsuit against Pornhub is seeking unprecedented amounts of compensation, a civil penalty and fines for Pornhub.
The deaf man is taking Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn to court because he »cannot enjoy the video content« without subtitles. More specifically, he tried to access the titles »Hot Step Aunt Babysits Disobedient Nephew« and »Sexy Cop Gets Witness To Talk«, both available on Pornhub. As these films did not offer subtitles, he said, he had been discriminated against. Mindgeek’s portals thus violated a US law dating from 1990, the so-called »Americans With Disabilities Act« (ADA). In this act, disabled people in the USA are guaranteed the right to equal enjoyment of publicly available goods, services and privileges.
Web sites that are not accessible to deaf or hearing impaired people violate this law, Suri concluded. In doing so, he interprets ADA very strictly, the law itself actually only stipulates that people with disabilities should have the same rights and opportunities as non-disabled people.
Corey Price is Vice President of Pornhub and spokesman for the company. He is somewhat annoyed and uncomprehending about the lawsuit. After all, Pornhub has been offering subtitles for some time now and has created a separate category for subtitled offerings – but only for selected titles.
Regarding the lawsuit in New York, Price says: »Although we do not normally comment on active court cases, we would like to take this opportunity to point out that we have a special category for films with subtitles.«
VENUS Berlin has taken the concerns of disabled people very seriously for years and ensures that all areas are accessible to visitors. In addition, a special guided tour for the blind is also offered for visually impaired people.
You can find the article about the subtitling service at Pornhub here.