Pornhub conspired to make porn addiction recovery advocate's life 'living nightmare': lawsuit
Pornhub’s parent company allegedly instigated a retaliation campaign to discredit the founder of a website that helps people struggling with porn addiction, according to a recent lawsuit.
The 208-page complaint filed on Dec. 30, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on behalf of Alexander Rhodes and his peer-support website NoFap, claims that Pornhub conspired with others to file false police reports and falsely linked the website's founder to a white supremacist group.
In addition to Pornhub (four Aylo Holdings entities), the defendants listed in the suit include the University of California, Los Angeles, the publisher Taylor & Francis, and two academics, Nicole Prause and David Ley.
"This lawsuit isn't only to prevent porn industry leadership from shutting down our peer-support platform. It's about protecting scientists, clinicians, educators and others who fear career harm or retaliation for speaking about pornography's potential effects, including behavioral addiction and sexual dysfunction,” Rhodes said in a statement provided to The Christian Post.
“For years, a chilling effect has skewed academia and coverage on this topic,” Rhodes continued. “Moreover, this case is about ensuring millions of people worldwide who want to quit or reduce pornography use can obtain support without interference."
NoFap is suing the porn company under the RICO Act, with the suit asserting 17 causes of action, including racketeering, civil conspiracy, unfair competition, trademark dilution, defamation and breach of contract.
The suit argues that although Pornhub and its parent company try to appear as “a sex-positive and legal commercial sex industry operation,” the company has been accused of partnering with sex traffickers and distributing child sex abuse material.
The suit argues that Aylo conspired with others to “intimidate and silence its targets through an illegal conspiracy that has turned Alexander Rhodes’ life into a living nightmare.”
Aylo, Nicole Prause, David Ley, UCLA and Taylor & Francis did not respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment. This article will be updated if a response is received.
Pornhub began targeting Rhodes and his organization, NoFap, in 2015, the suit alleges, claiming the porn company usually acted through defendants Ley and Prause.
The suit also accuses Pornhub and its parent company of conducting a “disinformation campaign aimed to suppress and shut down the largest porn addiction recovery peer-support platform.” Defendants UCLA and Taylor & Francis are accused of having “knowingly aided and abetted the scheme.”
Prause, a neuroscientist based in Los Angeles, allegedly collaborated with Ley to target the plaintiffs starting in 2016. Ley is identified in the suit as a licensed therapist and author of The Myth of Sex Addiction and Ethical Porn for Dicks.
According to the suit, Prause’s actions against the plaintiffs include filing a false report with the Pennsylvania Department of State and claiming during a television appearance on “The Doctors” that Rhodes was stalking her and was subject to a restraining order.
Rhodes has denied the allegations, claiming he has never met Prause and has never been subject to a restraining order.
The neuroscientist is also accused of posting defamatory statements online about NoFap, claiming that it's a “hate group” that advocates for misogyny. Prause has spread the idea that NoFap and its founder have “promoted” and “worked with” the activist group Proud Boys, an accusation that the complaint asserts is false.
Ley and Prause’s criticisms of porn recovery resources “escalated” following the antisemitic attack at the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the lawsuit claims. On the day of the attack, Ley published an article at Psychology Today titled “Is One Sexual Behavior Triggering Certain Groups?” which falsely linked the plaintiffs to the Proud Boys.
Vice Media founder Gavin McInnes, who created the Proud Boys, had once interviewed Rhodes; however, the lawsuit asserts that the interview took place before the Proud Boys existed.
Ley and Prause worked to disseminate the article in Psychology Today, falsely linking Rhodes to the Proud Boys, the suit claims. The article was also disseminated on xHamster, another porn website. The lawsuit alleges that Ley’s article “kicked off the pornography industry’s strategy of attempting to connect pornography addiction recovery to violence, mass shootings, and extremist ideologies.”
The lawsuit further alleges that, due to Ley and Prause, the plaintiffs “have sustained substantial harm, including reputational damage, emotional distress, financial losses, and additional damages exceeding the jurisdictional minimum, with the exact amount to be proven at trial.”
In a statement provided to CP, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, David Kobylinski, stated, "The pornography industry is borrowing from the 1950s tobacco industry's playbook. We hope this case triggers governmental oversight and, where warranted, criminal investigations."
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
