Thank you for that important question.
The response of MindGeek has been really inexcusable. They have sought to call advocates who are speaking out about this liars. They've called me personally a liar many times, and said that I was intentionally misleading. They have harassed. Those whom we know are connected with MindGeek and Pornhub have engaged in the harassment, the abuse and even the doxing of not only advocates like me and my own family, but also victims.
It's one thing to go after advocates. It's another thing to go after victims. Victims have been blackmailed. They have been intimidated into silence. They have, even in some cases, been physically attacked, where victims have actually sent me photos of themselves after a physical attack.
With regard to journalists, I have been sent emails from journalists around the world, even from Europe and even in Canada, where journalists have attempted to cover this issue, long before The New York Times did. The #Traffickinghub campaign took off in February with hundreds of thousands of signatures, even in the first couple of weeks. Now we're over a million. Even before that, The Sunday Times was investigating in early 2019 and journalists wanted to cover this issue, but those from MindGeek, often using fake names and identities, like this Ian Andrews character, would intimidate journalists and would even threaten legal action against them and would silence these stories from getting out.
I think that kind of behaviour is what.... One porn producer told me that she called it the “MindGeek Mafia”, and that's exactly what it feels like.
One advocate who had spoken against MindGeek in the past, when I first began this campaign, called me and said, “Laila, do you have a safe room?” I said, “No, why?” She said, “I think you should get one.” I didn't understand that at the time, but I think I understand it now.