AMSTERDAM — An Amsterdam court on Wednesday ordered Cyprus-based tube site xHamster to obtain consent from every Netherlands-based amateur model featured in videos posted on the site, or else remove those videos.
According to the ruling, xHamster has three weeks starting April 12 to remove all videos with amateur images of people living in the Netherlands unless it can provide proof that those people gave their explicit permission.
Amateur images of persons who do not live in the country must be made inaccessible in the Netherlands within the same three weeks unless explicit permission can be ascertained.
The judgment by the District Court of Amsterdam follows complaints made by local nonprofit Expertise Bureau for Online Child Abuse (EOKM).
EOKM released a statement celebrating the ruling and noting that according to the Dutch court, xHamster “may only continue to publish non-professional nude images if it has the permission of all persons appearing in the picture.”
The group hailed the decision as “a victory for the rights and privacy of victims whose nude images were published without demonstrable consent.”
EOKM previously succeeded in court last year in its action against the Dutch site Vagina.nl, where the courts ruled that it was unlawful to publish amateur images “unless the operator has ascertained that everyone in the image consents to publication.”
Last week’s decision confirms the previous ruling, but also establishes a precedent of jurisdiction for platforms located outside the Netherlands whose content can be accessed through the internet.
EOKM Director Arda Gerkens said, “I am pleased that the court has confirmed once again that this type of amateur footage cannot simply be placed online. The distribution of nude images in this way must be stopped, and all porn sites play a role in that.”
Gerkens added that EOKM “will certainly consider taking further steps against other porn sites that publish, or have published, images without explicit permission, with recognizable persons performing sexual acts in private.”
EOKM’s lawyer, Hanna van Til of the Boekx Law Firm, stated, “After this verdict, xHamster and other operators can no longer look the other way.”
Her colleague Otto Volgant called the verdict “a historic ruling with major consequences for the entire porn industry” and called for the porn industry to self-regulate and no longer offer videos online without participants’ permission.
