Lotus Foundation

Lotus Foundation is a nonprofit organization in Colorado providing confidential advocacy and case management to survivors of human trafficking.

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

Lotus Foundation has launched an apparel store! As with all of our fundraisers, 100% of proceeds go directly to serving and supporting #survivors of #HumanTrafficking

https://t.co/jS4DhIJtOn

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

We ask you to please take the time this month to learn something new

To help Lotus Foundation continue our dedicated support of survivors of human trafficking, click here: https://t.co/KbbYJUql8m

#humantraffickingawarenessmonth #survivors #nonprofit #colorado #LotusFoundationCO

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

Welcome to 2024, and also National Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month!
Throughout Jan, we will be posting lots of information/facts regarding human trafficking on our Facebook and instagram. The best way to prevent is to raise not only awareness, but education.

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

You are not alone.

#HumanTrafficking #survivors #trauma #crisis #holidays #support #colorado #LotusFoundationCO #nonprofit #hotline #help

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

If you are interested in learning a little about why the holidays are hard for so many survivors of trauma, this article is a good place to start your reading:

https://t.co/hUwVFc8MeK

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

While many people are celebrating today, many survivors of trauma are struggling extra hard.

We at Lotus Foundation want you all to know that we are thinking of you and sending you love if you are having a hard time during this season.

Please reach out if you need support.

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

There are 20 religious and cultural holidays in the month of December.
Whatever you celebrate, the advocates at Lotus Foundation wish you a wonderful one!

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

Are you looking for a cheap and easy way to make a big difference in the life of a survivor of human trafficking?
Lotus Foundation is in need of gift cards!
If you prefer you can send via Venmo or PayPal to @LotusFoundationCO and we will use the funds to purchase gift cards.

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

This incredible bronze statue is located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.
Sculpted by Timothy Schmalz, the piece is titled, ‘Let the oppressed go free.”
If you have the opportunity to see this beautiful tribute to human trafficking survivors,please do!

Photo credit: Robert Edwards

[Laila Mickelwait @LailaMickelwait]

Summary of P*rnhub’s reckoning so far:

-10.6 million videos taken down

-30 million images taken down

-Cut off by Visa, Mastercard, Discover, PayPal

-Sued by 257 victims in 10 lawsuits totaling billions in potential damages

-Thousands of media articles written exposing P*rnhub’s criminality

-Lost all mainstream advertisers

-Permanently kicked off Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok losing 14 million followers/subscribers

-Cut off by Grant Thornton, Roku, Comcast/Xfinity, Kraft Heinz, Unilever and many more businesses

-CEO and COO forced to resign

-Secret shareholder found and exposed

-Forced to change upload process

-Company sold at a discount to hastily concocted private equity firm laughably called Ethical Capital for a desperate whitewashing

AND WE AREN’T DONE YET

#Traffickinghub movement is growing—we had almost 200 million views and engagements in 2023 so far.

Let’s keep the pressure on until we SHUT IT DOWN and LOCK THEM UP. Then we must put age and consent verification policies in place to ensure this atrocity never happens again.

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

https://t.co/W0Yp5AV2ww

[Lotus Foundation @LotusAdvocates]

Our beautiful collaboration with @littlewordsproj is live!! For the month of October, you can purchase this bracelet and they will donate 25% to Lotus Foundation.
Enough. It's a little word that can mean so much to survivors and advocates alike.
Get yours here the link attached!

[CLE Public Square @CLEPublicSquare]

Last night we installed a powerful new sculpture in Cleveland Public Square called “Let The Oppressed Go Free” by artist Timothy Schmalz.
It’s a 22.5�� bronze sculpture w/ 100 figures representing different faces of human trafficking.
Learn more: https://t.co/wB7paLq3h6

[Laila Mickelwait @LailaMickelwait]

“For 8 years, I was raped and beaten and video taped by hundreds of men, women and even married couples. I never thought I would live to be 18…”

Below is the account of a child victim of P*rnhub in her own words. We now have evidence from uncovered emails and legal depositions that P*rnhub owners & executives hid all child rape videos they knew about from authorities for 13 years and had policies in place to allow them to be uploaded again and again. Their policies as confirmed in emails by the CEO, would not put violent rapes like this one in line for review unless they were flagged over 15 times. They had one person reviewing flagged videos 5 days a week and a backlog of 706,000 flagged videos. Management made it clear to employees that they “didn’t want the rules [against criminal content] to be enforced.”

Here is her story:

“I am now 20 years old, and I am a sex and porn trafficking survivor. At the age of 9, my biological mother sold me to johns (people who buy sex) in exchange for drugs and for money. This happened until I was rescued at the age of 17 and placed into a safe house, where I was able to escape my bio mom and the people she worked with.

For 8 years, I was raped and beaten and video taped by hundreds of men, women and even married couples. I never thought I would live to be 18 years old. I was hospitalized dozens of times, and one time I was forced to drink ammonia until I passed out and was raped for hours after that even though my mouth and throat were burning so bad. I have seen many other children raped in front of me even a 3 year old boy being raped by a man that was in his 40s. I was forced to have sex with other children, especially young girls. I still have nightmares and extreme PTSD from this.

I am thankful that I have a family now who helps me through my flashbacks and my panics. But it’s not fair that my life is so hard now because I was forced into a life of sex and p*rnography as a child. I have had to get police involved on multiple occasions to try and get Redtube & P*rnhub [owned by MindGeek/Aylo] to remove videos of me being raped AS A MINOR.

I don’t understand why it’s so difficult.

Please, stop allowing people to make money off of the torture and coercion of children. It’s not fair.”

Take note that she said she couldn’t get her videos down unless she got police involved. P*rnhub had set up a system where victims were thwarted from being able to take down their abuse all the while P*rnhub heavily monetized the abuse with ads and premium subscriptions to enrich themselves off of the suffering.

They must be held accountable.

#Traffickinghub

[Laila Mickelwait @LailaMickelwait]

P*rnhub advertised the victim’s trafficking as one of their top viewed videos. #Traffickinghub https://t.co/3XBbsGejPB

[Laila Mickelwait @LailaMickelwait]

P*rnhub verified a 15 yr old who was missing for a year into their “ModelHub” program. She was found being raped in 58 videos. PH took 35% of the profit from her rape video sales.

Twitter recently suspended P*rnhub’s ModelHub account.

This art piece was inspired by her story.

[Laila Mickelwait @LailaMickelwait]

@MichaelJam20865 You can sign the petition here https://t.co/DbAIRF6SHD

And you can donate to the cause here https://t.co/1yZF2Y2JfC

🙏

[Laila Mickelwait @LailaMickelwait]

BREAKING: Miss Teen Colorado Files Sex Trafficking Lawsuit Against P*rnhub

The victim Kristy Althaus was trafficked at 18 by force and coercion by the infamous P*rnhub partner GirlsDoPorn trafficking operation. Guns, threats, blackmail, drugs and more were used to abuse her.

She is now suing P*rnhub for knowingly and intentionally profiting millions from her abuse that garnered hundreds of millions of views on the site.

The lawsuit details how P*rnhub allowed, advertised and promoted her abuse as one of their top most popular videos.

When she demanded the videos be removed, telling P*rnhub they were nonconsensual and uploaded against her will, P*rnhub refused and threatened legal action against her if she continued to try and get the videos down.

#Traffickinghub

[Laila Mickelwait @LailaMickelwait]

The London Sunday Times did an investigation into P*rnhub and found “dozens of illegal videos in minutes” including children as young as THREE YEARS OLD.

9 days ago evidence uncovered in legal discovery in a California child sex trafficking class action lawsuit against P*rnhub proved they hid child sexual abuse they knew about from authorities for over 13 years. From 2007-April 2020 after #Traffickinghub went viral exposing them they DID NOT REPORT any known child abuse to authorities.

This was also confirmed by the two primary child protection agencies in the US and Canada during a 2021 parliamentary investigation in Canada.

During this time evidence shows P*rnhub was also instructing users who found child abuse on the site NOT to report it to authorities and to send it to them instead.

Imagine how many children could have been saved during those 13 years if P*rnhub wasn’t hiding the abuse from law enforcement?

It’s a criminal offense in Canada, where P*rnhub is headquartered not to report known child sexual abuse material. The crime carries a 14 year prison sentence.

#Traffickinghub

[Laila Mickelwait @LailaMickelwait]

A 12 yr old girl from Ontario Canada had her sexual abuse uploaded to P*rnhub where it was monetized, globally distributed for profit & made downloadable for 130 million visitors per day.

Traumatized and desperate she contacted P*rnhub to demand they takedown her abuse videos. 5 days later she got an auto-reply and nothing else…ever. Her demand went ignored and her abuse remained on the site.

She has now filed a $600 million dollar lawsuit against P*rnhub.

A few days ago on Sept. 1 new evidence was uncovered in legal discovery that proves P*rnhub had only one person reviewing flagged videos only 5 days a week. They had a backlog of over 700,000 flagged videos and a policy to not even put a video in line for review until it had over 15 flags.

The depositions also proved P*rnhub hid child sexual abuse they knew about from authorities for over 13 years. Not reporting known online child sexual abuse is a criminal offense in Canada that carries a 14 year prison sentence.

In the documents published by the court P*rnhub employees are also on the record saying management did not want to be told about the abundance of child rape on the site and that management did not want them to enforce rules that were put on paper against criminal content.

#Traffickinghub

[Laila Mickelwait @LailaMickelwait]

Serena was only 14 yrs old when nude videos of her were uploaded to P*rnhub, sending her on a spiral of trauma, including suicide attempts, homelessness, & drug addiction.

She recounted during parliamentary testimony how she begged for her abuse videos to be removed from P*rnhub over and over, and was ignored or hassled. Even when they were taken down the videos would be uploaded again.

Serena is now suing P*rnhub in federal court.

On Sept. 1 new evidence was uncovered in legal discovery that proves P*rnhub had only one person reviewing flagged videos only 5 days a week. They had a backlog of over 700,000 flagged videos and a policy to not even put a video in line for review until it had over 15 flags.

The depositions also proved P*rnhub hid child sexual abuse they knew about from authorities for over 13 years and employees are on the record saying management did not want them to enforce rules that they put on paper against criminal content.

Hold them accountable. #Traffickinghub