A deaf man is suing Pornhub over its lack of closed captioning on its wide array of videos.
While pornography isn’t generally known for its comprehensive, engaging dialogue, the plaintiff – named Yaroslav Suris – alleges that the absence of subtitles across Pornhub’s site is actually a breach of federal law.
Suris claims the Canadian adult entertainment streamer has violated his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life. However, as Pornhub is a mostly free service, it’s not entirely clear who has the high ground.
As reported by TMZ, Suris’s class action lawsuit outlines the lack of closed captions on the videos inhibits his full enjoyment of the material, meaning he isn’t able to understand the audio portions of the clips.
While he has watched a number of videos, Suris wasn’t able to comprehend them due to having no subtitles available. He even noted specific titles he tried to view, including: Hot Step Aunt Babysits Disobedient Nephew, Sexy Cop Gets Witness to Talk and Daddy 4K – Allison Comes to Talk About Money to Her Boys’ Naughty Father.
While Suris says he’d usually be happy to fork out the money for a premium subscription, he feels Pornhub isn’t worth it in his current condition. As well as trying to get the site to implement full closed captioning, he’s also suing for damages.
TMZ has since received a statement from Pornhub Vice President Corey Price, who wrote:
We understand that Yaroslav Suris is suing Pornhub for claiming we’ve denied the deaf and hearing impaired access to our videos. 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.
Unfortunately, many people have resorted to mocking the plaintiff on Twitter. One user wrote: ‘Pure laziness by Pornhub. How difficult can it be to put Uuurgggggaaaahhhhomygodohmygodoooo along the bottom of every video?’
Another user tweeted: ‘I’m sure Pornhub will make sure he cums out ok over this.’ Some have posited that there’s no need for subtitles as many people watch porn muted anyway, with one user writing: ‘Nobody watches porn with the volume turned up so WHY does he need closed captioning?’
However, some have come to his defence. American UFC fighter Derrick Lewis shared the story, writing: ‘I understand.’ Another user wrote: ‘Funny thing, I think he’ll actually probably win.’
The lawsuit is still ongoing.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.