Free Speech Coalition Demands Meeting with Netflix, "Hot Girls Wanted" Over Performer Harassment Complaints

LOS ANGELES, May 16, 2017 -- The Free Speech Coalition is demanding a meeting with the producers of the Netflix documentary series Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On as performers featured in the series continue to report harassment and privacy violations.

In a letter sent on May 16, the Free Speech Coalition, the national advocacy and trade organization for the adult industry, detailed new complaints by performers about the ethics of the series, including specific incidents of harassment that have followed the broadcast of the controversial series.

This is the second letter the Free Speech Coalition has sent to the producers. The initial letter received no direct response. The new letter has been signed on by over fifty activists, performers, doctors, academics and sex workers rights organizations.

In addition to the requested meeting to address performer concerns, the Free Speech Coalition and other signatories are asking for producers to obscure legal names and other identifying features of performers who did not consent to the disclosures.

“Over the past several weeks, numerous performers have come forward, both publicly and privately, saying that they were deceived and exposed by the producers of the series,” said Eric Paul Leue, the Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition. “As a result of the series' serious disclosures of performers’ real names, performers have been threatened, and their family members harassed. We are asking Netflix and the Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On team to meet with performer advocates about possible remedies.”

The letter reads in part:

It is difficult to believe that Netflix condones the unethical, and legally questionable, practices employed by the producers of Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On, considering that they are in direct conflict with Netflix’s stated values, the ethics of documentary filmmaking, and the core tenets of our industry. These practices have, and continue to cause serious harm, yet nothing is being done by either the producers or Netflix to protect the vulnerable …

The performer whose legal name was exposed in the documentary against their will, and despite verbal promises from producers, has since our last letter had her family harassed. Mail containing graphic images of her work was recently received at her mother’s home address, family members at different addresses have received similar mail, and the performer has been threatened online ...

Contrary to the producers’ assumptions, not all exposure is good. Webcam models have the right to limit the states or countries where their shows can be seen, so that family members, neighbors, landlords, predators or others can not access or identify them. When the series shows a customer logging into the member areas of webcam sites, several models’ faces, names, and other identifiable characteristics are clearly visible. In broadcasting these streams to an international audience, Netflix has unwittingly outed them, bypassing a standard industry practice intended to protect models.

The letter further details concerns of performers who say they were misled or lied to by producers about the nature of the documentary, and whether or not their legal names and identities would be used in the finished series.

The full letter can be read here.

CONTACT:
Mike Stabile
Communications Director, Free Speech Coalition
[email protected]
(818) 348-9373