In today's News That Sounds Like A Joke, Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn are all being sued for alleged violation of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Why? Because the adult videos don't all have closed-captioning. Yaroslav Suris, a deaf man from New York, argued he "cannot enjoy video content" without them.
His lawsuit claims he tried to watch various Pornhub videos -- including “Hot Step Aunt Babysits Disobedient Nephew" and “Sexy Cop Gets Witness To Talk" -- in October 2019 and January 2020, but couldn't enjoy them due to the lack of closed-caption subtitles.
His lawsuit argued, per ABC News, that it's a discriminatory act when websites prevent accessibility to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. The Americans with Disabilities Act probably wasn't established with porn captions in mind, but it aims to provide "full and equal enjoyment" of services and privileges and "to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else."
Pornhub's Vice President Corey Price actually responded to the lawsuit:
While we do not generally comment on active lawsuits, we’d like to take this opportunity to point out that we do have a closed captions category.
Pornhub does have a closed caption category, but does it include every video or select videos? What about the other sites? It's possible if someone wants to watch videos like "Hot Step Aunt Babysits Disobedient Nephew" and “Sexy Cop Gets Witness To Talk" they really DO want to know what that witness talks about. Maybe that kind of dirty talk, whether heard or just read, does it for some people. Everyone has their kinks!
It may seem silly to file a lawsuit over not being able to understand the dialogue in a porn video. It is kind of silly. But it also serves the larger point of normalizing closed-captions across videos. Using porn in your lawsuit is a way to get attention, and if companies are forced to respond to lawsuits like this, then maybe they will keep closed-captioning in mind when creating any future videos.
Actress Marlee Matlin, for example, recently tweeted about her "preferred airline," Delta, having provisions for various languages and audio description for in-flight entertainment but no closed captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing flyers. That got the attention of Delta, which responded through a spokesperson to say most aircrafts have a wide variety of closed caption content, but Matlin's flight hadn't been upgraded yet to that feature. The airline's statement added, via USA Today, "Accessibility is important to us (and) we apologize and are working diligently to upgrade our remaining fleet."
If you can get the word out, you can sometimes create change. That's the goal in this case as well. After all, Yaroslav Suris doesn't just sue porn sites. He previously filed lawsuits against outlets from Fox News to the New York Post for similar alleged ADA violations.
So he's clearly trying to make a point, not just trying to, you know, enjoy himself on Pornhub. However, he is reportedly asking for fines, civil penalties, and compensatory damages against Pornhub. Do you think he really expects to get anything? I doubt it.
Meanwhile, Pornhub seems to be doing quite well for itself, giving an award to Bella Thorne for her movie, and adding Kumail Nanjiani as the symbol for a new category after the Eternals star's physical transformation. Superhero categories and animated TV characters seem to be the most popular searches on Pornhub ... although "Hot Step Aunt Babysits Disobedient Nephew" and “Sexy Cop Gets Witness To Talk" are apparently popular too?
