William Barr Must Investigate PornHub, Republican Senator Demands

As countries around the world have either banned online porn, or are currently making attempts to block porn sites, a Republican United States senator has now called on Attorney General William Barr to open an investigation of the massive tube site PornHub, according to KHGI TV News in Nebraska, the state represented by GOP senator Ben Sasse. Sasse’s letter to Barr follows a letter last December from four Republican House members calling on Barr to wage a new war against pornography. But this time, the Republican call for a crackdown has some Democratic backing as well, from California House Rep Jackie Speier, who—like Sasse—accuses the site of hosting “non-consensual” porn. “Pornhub’s failure to remove nonconsensual pornography from its website is destroying lives," Speier said in a statement that she provided to Fox News.  A widely publicized online petition has also called for the shutdown of PornHub over “sex trafficking.” The petition has now accrued over 400,000 virtual signatures. Barr has not yet commented publicly on the new calls for an anti-porn Justice Department crackdown. But during his first term as attorney general, from 1991 to 1993—before the era of online porn—Barr led a Justice Department campaign against porn. He has also published articles and spoken openly about his views that the U.S. government must impose “a transcendent moral order with objective standards of right and wrong.” Under those standards, in Barr’s view, “sexual immorality” clearly falls under the heading of “wrong.” He has also condemned “secularlists” who “continually seek to eliminate laws that reflect traditional moral norms.” “During his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Barr told me that he would make combating sex trafficking a Department of Justice priority," Sasse told Fox News. "This is pretty obvious: Any company that profits from rape, trafficking, and exploitation of women and children must be held accountable." But PornHub responded to Sasse’s call for Barr to investigate the site, saying that the company has a “steadfast commitment to eradicating and fighting any and all illegal content on the internet, including non-consensual content and under-age material. Any suggestion otherwise is categorically and factually inaccurate.” Last week, the Justice Department published a set of “voluntary principles” for sites to combat alleged online sex trafficking. But a PornHub spokesperson told Fox that the site’s content guidelines go “above and beyond” the principles outlined by Barr’s Justice Department. Photo by Office of Public Affairs / Wikimedia Commons