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Caught Our Eye

Porn giant hires Mercury in midst of child-porn lawsuit

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on April 6, 2021

Mercury Public Affairs's newest lobbying client is the subject of an ongoing child-pornography and sex-trafficking lawsuit.

Webgroup Czech Republic, which owns popular porn site XVideos, hired the lobbying firm last month, just after the National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Webgroup Czech Republic of benefitting from sex trafficking and distributing child pornography. XVideos is the 88th most-visited site in the world, according to Alexa Internet data.

Mercury has assigned former Rep. Joe Garcia (D-Fla.) and a managing director to the case. They're lobbying on unspecified "online speech and communications" and "Internet compliance" issues, per a recent disclosure, and have hired law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as a subcontractor.