Girlsdoporn offline after losing legal battle

US-based porn website Girlsdoporn is now offline after being ordered to pay $12.8m (£9.8m) to 22 unnamed women who appeared in videos it published.

The domain has been down for about a week, according to platforms which track whether websites are working.

On 3 January, a judge in San Diego ruled the firm had lied to the women about how the videos would be shared and whether they would be identifiable.

The site's owner Michael Pratt is currently wanted by the FBI.

He is believed to be in New Zealand.

Deceived women win GirlsDoPorn legal battle

Other website addresses connected to the business also appear to be offline, reports Vice.

The site promised videos featuring women who were not professional porn stars, and would therefore only ever appear in one film.

The women who brought the lawsuit were told their videos would not appear online and were intended for private investors or overseas DVDs.

However, they were uploaded to the subscription platform and clips were also circulated to other, free-to-view, sites.

Despite promising its models that their names would not be linked to the material, the site did share identifying information on third party forums, the court found.

"Collectively, [the women] have experienced severe harassment, emotional and psychological trauma, and reputational harm; lost jobs, academic and professional opportunities and family and personal relationships, and had their lives derailed and uprooted," noted San Diego Superior Court Judge Kevin Enright.