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Pornhub Blocked in Texas
- bitcharmer 3y agoTexas speed running the Gilead play through. USA is such a bizarre country.
- verdverm 3y agoIs this a Handmaid's Tale reference? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale#Setting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale#Settin... I haven't read the book so had to look it up, this seems the most plausible reference
- bitcharmer 3y agoYes, it is. I haven't read the books but highly recommend the tv show.
- whythre 3y agoNot a fan of pornhub or the industry in general, but the continued factionalization of the internet sucks.
- jMyles 3y agoReally takes the "inter" out of it, doesn't it?
- some_furry 3y ago"Internet" or "Intercourse"?
- ranger_danger 3y agoHow is this enforceable if a company does not physically operate in any capacity in that state? The worst I thought could happen is local ISPs might block the site, but otherwise why shut it off yourselves? I didn't think one state could compel a business in another state to do anything whatsoever.
- nerdjon 3y agoI have been curious about this myself, I am wondering if it could have something to do with collecting money in the state? Maybe they could still just be sued in Texas regardless of whether or not they are there.
- krapp 3y agoAs mentioned in the article, Pornhub isn't literally blocked, rather they're serving a page containing a statement protesting Texas' law along with a request for users to contact their representatives, to any Texas IP.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- throw_m239339 3y ago> How is this enforceable if a company does not physically operate in any capacity in that state? Enforce what? Texas took no step to block them. > Pornhub Disables Website in Texas Over Age-Verification Law Pornhub blocked themselves in Texas. It's like all these US sites preventing EU users from visiting them, just because they don't want to be GDPR compliant.
- ranger_danger 3y ago> Enforce what? Age verification for site visitors...
- alex_lav 3y ago> Enforce what? Texas took no step to block them. The government takes no steps to prevent lots of law infractions, that doesn't mean they won't punish you for not adhering. As is the nature of laws. > Pornhub blocked themselves in Texas. It's like all these US sites preventing EU users from visiting them, just because they don't want to be GDPR compliant. Yes, preventing yourself from breaking a law is generally wise. What point do you believe you're making in these comments?
- garrettgarcia 3y agoHere is the full text on pornhub.com if accessed from within Texas: "Dear user, As you may know, your elected officials in Texas are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. Not only does this impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech, it fails strict scrutiny by employing the least effective and yet also most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’s stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors. While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, providing identification every time you want to visit an adult platform is not an effective solution for protecting users online, and in fact, will put minors and your privacy at risk. Attempting to mandate age verification without any means to enforce at scale gives platforms the choice to comply or not, leaving thousands of platforms open and accessible. As we've seen in other states, such bills have failed to protect minors, by driving users from those few websites which comply, to the thousands of websites, with far fewer safety measures in place, which do not comply. Very few sites are able to compare to the robust Trust and Safety measures we currently have in place. To protect minors and user privacy, any legislation must be enforced against all platforms offering adult content. Unfortunately, the Texas law for age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. Not only will it not actually protect children, but it will also inevitably reduce content creators’ ability to post and distribute legal adult content and directly impact their ability to share the artistic messages they want to convey with it. The safety of our users is one of our biggest concerns. We believe that the only effective solution for protecting minors and adults alike is to verify users’ age on their device and to either deny or allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that verification. We call on all adult sites to comply with the law. Until the real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Texas. In doing so, we are complying with the law, as we always do, but hope that governments around the world will implement laws that actually protect the safety and security of users. We encourage you to: Learn more about device-based age verification* solutions that make the internet safer while also respecting your privacy. Contact your representatives and demand device-based verification solutions that make the internet safer while also respecting your privacy. *Device-Based Age Verification refers to any approach to age verification where the personal information that is used to verify the user’s age is either shared in-person at an authorized retailer, inputted locally into the user’s device, or stored on a network controlled by the device manufacturer or the supplier of the device’s operating system. Whether through pre-installed content blocking and filtering software, the disabling of web-browsing permissions, or other means, the user will then be prevented from accessing age-restricted content over the internet unless they are age-verified. To come to fruition, such an approach requires the cooperation of manufacturers and operating-system providers."
- root_axis 3y agoThe headline seems misleading. "Pornhub blocked in Texas" suggests Texas did the blocking, a better headline would be "Pornhub blocks users with Texas IPs"
- segasaturn 3y agoThe Texas legislation is effectively a block - there's no way for PH to verify the age of users entering the site in the way the legislation demands, but they face fines and legal action for not doing so. Catch-22, the only solution is to turn off access.
- greggsy 3y agoCredit card verification?
- segasaturn 3y agoIIRC, the legislation that's being passed in red states defines age verification as the service provider being provided with 2 pieces of valid government photo ID
- lupusreal 3y agoPH could implement that, they just don't want to.
- segasaturn 3y agoTheoretically they could sure, it would just be expensive, labor-intensive and put them at risk of criminal penalties if their process failed or broke down. Also the number of people willing to send their ID to a porn site is very small so whether they complied or not, they will not be getting much traffic from Texas. Its "impossible" from a common business sense perspective, not a theoretical perspective.
- 3y ago
- neovialogistics 3y agoLooking at the article, the statement they display to blocked users could do with either a change in tone to be more legally formal or a change in tone to be more approachable to less-literate users - bullet points, multiple headings etc. Right now that message is the worst of both worlds and will get a very low conversion rate. I've been away from this line of work for over a year, though. Does anybody here who has current experience in effective messaging, legal communication or marketing want to read the message Mindgeek put up and give their two cents on it for our entertainment?
- greggsy 3y agoGDPR banners are ubiquitous now, and while many are trivial to click-through, it’s still possible to insert a meaningful agreement and checkbox.
- presidentender 3y agoMore Texans will buy NordVPN subscriptions and the world will keep turning. It's a waste of legislation.
- ipsum2 3y agoThe kids that are accessing pornhub are unlikely to be buying VPN subscriptions so maybe it's actually a win?
- SketchySeaBeast 3y agoYeah, they'll find dodgier sites composed of even more illicit material hosted in places Texas can't reach. It's not like it's hard to find other sites by going to google and searching "porn".
- slothtrop 3y agoBasically this, it's been years now since Pornhub purged anonymous content (and by extension, pirated material), so anything that targets it is redundant.
- TillE 3y agoYeah the irony of the focus on PornHub is that 1) they were never any worse than the other dozen major sites which still accept anonymous uploads, and 2) they're now one of the most squeaky-clean porn sites out there.
- SketchySeaBeast 3y agoI mean, as clean as you can be when you allow users to upload porn, but by forcing out those who adhere to the rules you instead empower those who don't.
- hbn 3y agoOr they go to Google images and type in “boobs”
- erikson 3y ago[flagged]
- whalesalad 3y agoJust because you disagree with it doesn't mean others cannot enjoy it. There is also porn that does not involve women.
- erikson 3y ago[flagged]
- whalesalad 3y agoThat is religious conditioning. Not everyone believes sex between two consenting individuals needs to be so righteous. Women don't need to be protected from having sex for fun. Of course there are dark sides to the porn industry, but the concept in and of itself is not bad. Lots of people enjoy casual sex for fun, and there is nothing bad about that. Lots of people enjoy watching other people have sex, and there is nothing wrong with that either. Re Rabbi ... Jews are not as sexually opressed or conservative as other world faiths, quite the opposite actually.
- erikson 3y agoAsk your children to work in it if there is nothing bad about it. Nothing to do with religion, dignity of human beings is a universal concept. You have been conditioned into thinking its normal for young women to degrade themselves on camera in return for money. And 99% of the time it is for money. Yes its voluntary, but you live in a country where people go bankrupt because healthcare is expensive, and these are not phds with a tonne of options, you realize this?
- whalesalad 3y agoYou have been conditioned into thinking its degrading for women to show themselves on camera in return for money. You find this degrading, but not everyone does. Work is work. Value is value. If you have goods or services to provide and can earn income from that, and it isn't hurting anyone, what is the problem? If I was an attractive woman I would have absolutely no problem with being on a site like OnlyFans. The only people who feel the way you do are ones who have been conditioned to believe this from antiquated religious beliefs.
- whalesalad 3y agoFor a state that is hell bent on "freedom" they sure do love to remove them.
- mjburgess 3y agoI've often wondered if the american hatred of what we europeans love is born out of a real lived experience of vastly more gov. oppression than we have. We have no HSAs, no three or four layer tax systems, no governments trying to legislate really bizarre religious issues, no paranoid militarised police, no busy-body suburban sprawl of interfering no-bodies. Here, the prices in our stores are what we pay; our taxex are handled for us; the "invasion" of the government, eg., in healthcare, is to unburden us from concern. it seems "society and government" in the US is preoccupied with burdening people, and "micro-oppressions" of bureaucracy and interference
- sharkweek 3y agoI'm (drastically) oversimplifying, but there's a whole strategy here to starve the government and then point at it showing how ineffective it is.
- ein0p 3y agoI’m not an economist but what else do you propose we do with the government that’s thoroughly corrupt, and that’s charging $1T every 100 days on our collective credit card, to immediately piss it away on the most inane BS imaginable? What makes you believe that putting it in charge of $4.7T “healthcare system” we have in this country is going to improve, rather than worsen the matters?
- FrustratedMonky 3y ago'thoroughly corrupt" That is a slogan, to justify doing more bad things. The ends justify the means, and making up a reason. "Of course the government is corrupt, hence I'm justified in also being corrupt." If there is actual corruption and proof, it should be brought forward. Strangely enough, this is done, and Republican/Right have a much higher percentage of being the corrupt party. Even though this is their rally cry.
- verticalscaler 3y agoAh, I see they know their judo well. Very few sites are able to compare to the robust Trust and Safety measures we currently have in place. What are the age-verification measures to ensure only children 13(?) and older are able to access social media? Will somebody think of the children? And never mind porn what if Adults aged 18+ read misinformation on the news? Or post hateful memes? You need Trust and Safety! And only we can provide it properly. These salami tactics have been tried repeatedly and increasingly successfully around the world. And now apparently the US is next.
- chiefalchemist 3y agoNot exactly exciting, but I found this to be worth reading: "Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_for_the_Thought_That_We_Hate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_for_the_Thought_That_W...
- TaurenHunter 3y ago> Aylo is owned by Canadian private-equity firm Ethical Capital Partners
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- elif 3y agocongratulations you blocked 0.001% of porn
- throwaway2016a 3y agoAs a technologist the most interesting part to me is they bring up "Device based age verification" and I am very curious what the current state of that is. Some initial research shows that it is only at the exploratory stage (according to my 10 whole seconds of searching) but it definitely seems interesting.
- johnnyanmac 3y agoSounds interesting from a technological POV. From a logistics one, devices can be shared and it is very easy to share to a minor (which is what theses laws supposedly target). Or have multiple accounts on one device.it seems like a lot of work for less results..
- throwaway2016a 3y agoI assume it would be something like WebAuthN where it could be tied to some sort of USB key, fingerprint, or something similar.
- hollander 3y agoIn NL we have IDIN. A website can use it to verify age or address information. I don't think that any porn-websites are using it, but technically this should do the job. IDIN is set up by all the Dutch banks. You check in via your own bank using an IDIN link. IDIN will do an age-check to verify that you're 18 or older. IDIN can verify age, name, address and contact info. You need a bank account, and the bank has checked your identity and age, so this is guaranteed to work. Maybe you don't want that the bank knows that you visit a porn website, but that's another question.
- octopoc 3y ago[flagged]
- PurpleRamen 3y agoTime to milk those juicy VPN-codes that are thrown around like drops. I hope we will see some statistic in some week, about the Texas-centric growth, this could be really insightful, for ah...political reasons.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- neilv 3y agoCan someone who understands Texas well help characterize the values and political behavior of it? As an outsider, I only have incomplete impressions: * Personal liberty is highly valued. * Pro individual ownership of guns, as well as self-defense. * Oil is a big part of the economy. * Socially conservative overall, with exception of some enclaves of more liberal or progressive values. * Large percentage of people identifying as Christian. * Centralized editorial influence over school textbooks, for not just Texas but the nation. * Aggressive anti-abortion push. Apropos of this post, I'm interested in whether there are conventions over how conflicting values are reconciled (e.g., if anti-porn is driven by social conservative values, how does that override personal liberty values).
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lotsofpulp 3y ago> I'm interested in whether there are conventions over how conflicting values are reconciled (e.g., if anti-porn is driven by social conservative values, how does that override personal liberty values). The convention is if it helps my (perceived) tribe, good, and if it hurts the other tribe, good.
- neilv 3y agoI thought that was fairly recent US politics, of the last decade or so. Is that longer-term Texas values?
- lotsofpulp 3y agoIt has nothing to do with the US or Texas. Just human nature. People express conflicting thoughts, ideas, or actions because it benefits them. In fact, a little bit of inconsistency to benefit your tribe is a good signal to others in the tribe that you are willing to break rules to benefit yourself and/or whichever tribe you might find yourself in.
- quesera 3y ago
- UberFly 3y agoWhole lot of commenters haven't read the article. Here's the first line: "Pornhub and other affiliated adult websites have blocked access to users in Texas, amid a legal battle with the Lone Star State’s attorney general over an age-verification law."
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- 9erdelta 3y ago"Houston we have a problem" has a new meaning...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- timetraveller26 3y agothey should provide a state approved site
- Jleagle 3y agoWhat would a version without adult content contain?
- observationist 3y agoPornhub should purchase and publish the search history and browsing habits of Texas government officials in lieu of the usual content. Name and shame the hypocritical bastards.
- SauciestGNU 3y ago"Oak tree fucks governor until he can no longer walk"
- maipen 3y agoI saw somewhere that it was Porn that made the internet popular. I wonder what kind of consequences would emerge from imposing a world wide ban on the online porn industry. I see some comments here saying that people would still find a way. But would it be the majority? I don't think so. The internet without it's common access points like google, youtube, social media, becomes extremely unusable and unpleasent for the majority of the population. Banning search engines from showing porn would be a quick way to achieve this.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- bee_rider 3y agoI think if we ban porn sites, people will try to find ways to sneak porn onto on-porn sites. Personally, I prefer having an internet where I can use non-porn sites and not worry that I might stumble across some porn.
- friedtofu 3y agoA little throwback from the Broadway act 'Avenue Q' would agree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTJvdGcb7Fs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTJvdGcb7Fs
- johnnyanmac 3y ago> I see some comments here saying that people would still find a way. But would it be the majority? I don't think so The majority of creators? No. Many would quit, many others would tease and lose money, most adult sites would collapse while a few adapt to said teasing, pushing the line. The majority of consumers? Yes. Especially in a world where dating is more of a roulette than ever in the US and social spaces are collapsing. Even if it just means taking and consuming the past 50 years of porn underground, people would find a way to relive their primal urge >Banning search engines from showing porn would be a quick way to achieve this. Porn is the one exception that has very high demand and extremely effective word of mouth. By default (and even more so with parental controls), search engines try to avoid showing you adult content as is. Banning it outright will, again, just make people search and curate underground.
- philwelch 3y agoWhen the UK was going to implement a similar measure a few years ago, MindGeek had a compliance mechanism all ready to go: https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/927821/Porn-MindGeek-Age-Check-UK-Digital-Economy-Act https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/9278... I don’t know if MG changed their approach to the issue or if Texas is under less regulatory capture than the UK but the difference in approach is interesting.
- mbgerring 3y agoLeaving aside free speech and spurious moral panic concerns for a moment — isn’t digital ID verification a solved problem? Getaround has to verify my ID before I can drive, and I’ve had to do digital ID verification for a number of other apps. This doesn’t really seem like a question of whether ID verification is possible or practical. AFAICT it definitely is.
- ceejayoz 3y agoI'd suspect a large percentage of people would prefer their porn browsing history not be concretely connected to their real-life identity. Especially in this era of data breaches.
- Izkata 3y agoLikewise I'd bet Pornhub doesn't want to risk that scandal if it leaks from them.
- quesera 3y agoPrivacy?
- mbgerring 3y agoThen check the ID and then throw the PII away. All I’m saying is that there are absolutely ways to do this, and I keep hearing that these companies “can’t” accomplish this, but it just isn’t true. If you want to buy a copy of Playboy from a newsstand, in general, you’re going to get asked for ID at the counter. It’s been like that for a very long time and nobody seems to have a real problem with it. It’s unclear why people think this kind of requirement just goes away if it’s on the Internet.
- kelseyfrog 3y agoSo you're saying send PII with every GET request then?
- paxys 3y agoPolitics/nationalism is always a great cover to erode rights of the population. If you object, you are on the "other team" and will be shunned. No one in Texas wants porn bans, abortion bans, IVF bans, restrictive marijuana laws and everything else going on down there, but they will still enthusiastically vote for it to show party allegiance.
- scoofy 3y ago>No one in Texas wants porn bans, abortion bans, IVF bans, restrictive marijuana laws I grew up extremely religious in Texas... I can assure you that there are plenty of people who want these things. The good news is things are changing. Some members of my family who effectively spent their entire lives trying to overturn Roe, are now totally overwhelmed and distraught by the after effects, and what an awful person Donald Trump is. Truly a dog-that-caught-the-car situation.
- Izkata 3y agoThe abortion ban in particular has me confused: A huge amount of people believe abortion means killing a baby and absolutely are for banning it entirely. 13 states (Texas included) had trigger laws already on the books to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade was ever overturned, and are now in effect. This was a big thing all over the place when it happened.
- swatcoder 3y ago> No one in Texas wants porn bans, abortion bans, IVF bans, restrictive marijuana laws and everything else going on down there You sound ripe for some travel! It's not a bad place to visit! You may want to believe what you wrote because it helps those of us with contrary preferences to pretend that we're just better aligned to some rational truth or something, but no: there are many people in Texas and elsewhere who sincerely believe that each of those things is good and something that they want for their community. The number or loudness of those people change when stirred up by politicians, and sometimes ideas that weren't widely considered previously are wholly seeded as part of a political strategy, but that doesn't really change that most people are fully sincere in their beliefs and that their beliefs can sometimes be radically different than your own.
- rKarpinski 3y agoIs it also unreasonable that brick and mortar stores can't sell pornography to children? Should they be allowed to let children view porn for free as long as they look at some ads first?
- paulddraper 3y agoAnd verifying age is hard/impossible. So we should serve alcohol to minors. /s
- hk1337 3y agoNothing really lost here. I might actually be able to get some work done.
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- anon-sre-srm 3y agoContent of message. https://pastebin.com/TGuVBpst https://pastebin.com/TGuVBpst Pornhub is low-quality crap, haven't visited it in years. FYI: delta-9 THC is legal in Texas when derived from hemp, so actual weed is sold alongside the legal stuff in many cities.
- renegade-otter 3y agoMore of this before THE election, please!
- FrustratedMonky 3y agoI thought Texas was Republican, and Republicans are all for 'Freeeddooom'. Free Speech, Free to Do What I want, etc... Free to pick and choose what freedoms other people get.