WASHINGTON—Fresh from Meta’s agreement to pay up to $18 billion to resolve claims that Facebook and Instagram were designed to keep young users compulsively engaged, attorneys announced Friday that Pornhub.com would also be sued for being “suspiciously difficult to visit only once.”
The 4,800-page complaint alleges that Pornhub deployed a sophisticated behavioral system consisting of thumbnails, a search box, and the quiet confidence that users would eventually return despite deleting their history with tremendous ceremony.
“Meta had infinite scroll, algorithmic recommendations, and notifications engineered to pull users back,” said lead attorney Carol Fennel, standing beside twelve banker boxes labeled Absolutely Not Mine. “Pornhub had essentially the same machinery, except its customers kept claiming they were there because somebody sent them the link for research.”
“No reasonable person could become dependent on a website they repeatedly promise to leave within the next 45 seconds.” — Statement attributed to Pornhub’s legal team
Plaintiffs singled out the site’s “related videos” feature, which allegedly studies a visitor’s behavior until it understands him more completely than his spouse, physician, and parish priest combined. They also objected to private-browsing mode, calling it “a concealment feature knowingly distributed by Big Browser.”
Meta’s settlement followed a multistate trial over allegations that the company misled the public and built addictive features into Facebook and Instagram, particularly affecting children and teenagers. Meta has disputed characterizations of its products as addictive and has defended its safety work.
Under the proposed Pornhub settlement, the website would be required to interrupt every 600th visit with a full-screen message reading, “Have you considered becoming extremely interested in woodworking?” Repeat visitors would also receive a complimentary birdhouse plan and the telephone number of a therapist who has already heard everything.
At press time, millions of Americans had expressed strong support for the lawsuit before clearing their cookies and asking what lawsuit everyone was talking about.
On August 26, 2026, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion and adopt additional youth-safety measures to settle claims brought by nearly every state concerning alleged harms and addictive design.
Read the Associated Press report