Pornhub protests Utah age verification law by blocking the state's access:
MindGeek, the owner of adult platforms such as Pornhub, has blocked everyone in Utah from accessing its sites in protest of the state's age verification law that has just come into effect.
Utah has been fighting against online pornography for years. It called porn a public health crisis in 2016 and previously proposed that all smartphones and tablets in the state automatically block pornography. An age verification law was eventually passed in March, requiring users visiting adult platforms deemed "harmful to minors" to verify their age before being allowed access. Axios writes that any companies that don't comply with the law will be liable if they're sued over minors accessing their content.
Now that the law has gone into effect, MindGeek has responded by blocking anyone in Utah who tries to access Pornhub. Those with Utah IPs will see only a video of adult performer Cherie DeVille, a member of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, explaining the reason for the block.
"As you may know, your elected officials in Utah are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website," DeVille says. "While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk."
DeVille adds that "mandating age verification without proper enforcement" drives users to other sites with fewer safety measures in place.
[...] Utah's new laws also extend to social media companies. From March 1 next year, those under 18 will require a parent's permission before opening an account on social media platforms. Companies must also give parents access to their kids' posts, messages, and responses; are barred "from using a design or feature that causes a minor to have an addiction to the company's social media platform;" and must block under-18s from using social media between 10:30 pm and 6:30 am.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2023, @08:24PM (6 children)
That Pornhub [theguardian.com]?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday May 03 2023, @10:09PM (4 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2023, @06:36AM (3 children)
FTFA: "Pornhub has removed millions of videos – the majority of its content – after an investigation revealed a large number of them featured underaged and sex-trafficked subjects."
They were not taking safety and human rights seriously enough. Profit first. However:
"While the company acknowledged the severity of the accusations, it noted the campaign to crackdown on Pornhub comes from groups that have long campaigned against sex content of all kinds. In its statement, Pornhub said it is “being targeted not because of our policies and how we compare to our peers, but because we are an adult content platform”."
That doesn't excuse exploitation and abuse, though.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday May 04 2023, @07:27AM (2 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2023, @12:37PM (1 child)
I think they are just another ruthless company with money as their primary motivation. People, rights and freedoms are incidental as long as they make a big profit. They will pay whatever lip service is required to get by.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday May 04 2023, @05:25PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2023, @09:38PM
Offtopic? By what stretch of the imagination?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by progo on Wednesday May 03 2023, @09:08PM (24 children)
This seems more like an opt-out than a protest. Pornhub's business model isn't compatible with Utah law, and Pornhub doesn't stand to lose much if they just cut them loose. (Virtually of course via problematic geographic IP identification.)
This just like American news media companies opting out of EU due to the incredible risk of company-killing fines if they run afoul of GDPR.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 04 2023, @02:08AM (21 children)
As someone over the Green Site pointed out, Pornhub taking their tits and going home means the law is working exactly as designed.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Common Joe on Thursday May 04 2023, @03:18AM (20 children)
Yes, it is working as designed. And the test is highly successful. It has taken only five months to go from "give up your privacy to partake in in something that you're 'free to do'" in Louisiana to "it's now illegal" in Utah. Not much outcry for something that most Americans actively utilize. This means that there are going to be even more laws stripping away freedoms in the next five years. It might get a little quiet around presidential elections, but no matter which Slimeball wins, the most stripping we'll see is the continued stripping of our rights.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Thursday May 04 2023, @03:35AM (19 children)
Fortunately, we are still free to live in the state of our choice.
But one can predict a day when that might no longer be so. California is certainly eyeing the possibility, what with attempts to pass an exit tax.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Common Joe on Thursday May 04 2023, @04:44AM (14 children)
I know you mean well, but this kind of answer annoys the hell out of me. I don't have time for a full response this morning, but I'll try to convey what I want to say.
Most Americans cannot afford to move to a different state. Even those with money can't always up and leave their jobs or leave their families. I'm "stuck" where I am -- living in a foreign country -- for family reasons.
We Americans need to think outside of our little lives. There is an international movement to strip people of their rights. Reading SoylentNews makes that pretty clear. And if we are to combat that, we need to stop saying "well, just move elsewhere" or "write your own operating system if Linux and Windows doesn't suit you". We need to actually think, interact, and cooperate with others. We need to see the situation from the other point of view and work to resolve these issues.
Otherwise, in a few years, you'll be saying, "Well, I guess it didn't matter that I moved to the other state. It's pretty crappy here too."
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 04 2023, @07:31AM
Well, yeah. I don't write essays here. It's mostly impractical, but it's not yet prohibited.
And I know better than most people, because thanks to what boiled down to government overreach I found myself starting over with nothing at 58, and having to move halfway across the country to achieve that much.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2023, @12:44PM (4 children)
Most Jews in Europe in the 1930s-40s felt the same way. They're the ones who ended in murdered in concentration camps. The smart ones left, even if it meant abandoning their belongings.
Millions of people (including. me) have moved from "bad" States (like California, New York and Illinois) and moved to "good" states (like Texas and Florida).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Common Joe on Thursday May 04 2023, @03:40PM
"When you go far enough to the right, you meet the same idiots coming around from the left." -- Clint Eastwood
I think this applies to California, New York, Illinois, Texas, and Florida.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ChrisMaple on Thursday May 04 2023, @05:26PM (1 child)
There are a couple of additional problems of moving to a freer state. One is that the trend society-wide is toward less freedom, so the move only delays the disaster. The other is that although the freer states are attracting those who are aware of the cultural and political requirements of freedom, there are more people moving who don't understand and are just attracted to "Ooh, shiny!" The shiny crowd will vote to enslave themselves.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 04 2023, @10:23PM
Absolutely and painfully true.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday May 04 2023, @09:35PM
Is this some kind of bizarre blaming-the-victim argument that also involves the Jews?
You forgot to mention George Soros being involved somehow. He was born in 1930, after all!
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2, Disagree) by gnuman on Thursday May 04 2023, @05:37PM (4 children)
How so? Is this some echo chamber? Or are you in some echo chamber? What is this "international conspiracy" you are talking about? I'm sure that you do not mean making asylum process more arduous and inaccessible, as that is the only group where the alt-right (or should be say, modern right) has been pushing against.
What I find is that the right wing has been consumed by the extreme phobia in their echo chambers driven by drivel found on their so called News. Watching FoxNews is like watching RT and the others are more extreme phobia generation stations.
When I look outside of this phobia echo chambers, I don't actually see anything changing much in practice.... but perhaps it will become reality... FoxNews and related are driven by rich elites that want to gain more power by brainwashing the masses. That type of propaganda works, but it tends to sweep the rich elite idiots along with it.
So, what "international conspiracy" are you talking about? Maybe point to real sources outside of the echo chambers please.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Common Joe on Thursday May 04 2023, @06:42PM (2 children)
Well, let's see... copyright protection is too extreme and getting worse, Windows is bullying their way into people's lives with more ads, Ads are being shoved down our throats no matter where we go on the Internet, political influence from entities that should not be influencing politics, we've been steadily earning less decade after decade so that that the rich can squash the poor and former middle class... so, yeah, not so hard to come with a list that is not an echo chamber. And this is very international, not just in the U.S. That's not to mention the things we don't talk about as often like the code war with Russia / China.
So, yeah, I'd call it an international conspiracy. However, you'll notice I purposely avoid labeling anything left / right. Your inclination to label things with a left / right slant shows me you're being distracted from those are actually taking away your freedoms. I could have gone on with a larger list, but then you'd probably try to label it red or blue. This isn't a republic / democrat problem. All I'm saying is stop arguing and talk things out with those who have a different view point.
And follow the money trail to those at the top. It's not hard to logically reason this stuff out.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Common Joe on Thursday May 04 2023, @06:44PM
Heh. I meant "cold war", not "code war". Freudian slip, I guess.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Friday May 05 2023, @08:24PM
let's see...
1. copyright protection is same old, same old since close to 25 years after the "Millennium Copyright Act" by Clinton, I think
2. windows? ads? AdBlock Plus fixes that disaster...
3. political influence ... I see the crazy on one end of the spectrum, mostly. FoxNews is worse these days than RT ... not joking.
..
I don't see much difference ... except the right has gone crazy and put politics over country. I'm not even talking about US alone here.
Well, Common Joe, we are *not* in a situation where one side of the political spectrum is somehow equally responsible. I see Twitter basically become a cesspool lately. I see FoxNews worse than RT -- RT actually had factual reporting, though it was definitely propaganda pieces designed to make "west" look like it's occupied by drug addicts and criminals and full of poverty. FoxNews somehow managed to make it worse. I see politicians, especially on the right, become radicals. Non-events are getting spun out of control as something major happening. Propaganda works. It just takes time.
But this is not a conspiracy to reduce your freedoms. It's a conspiracy by the some rich wanting to control the poorer by making them dumber. That's decades in the making.
Do kids have civics classes? I sure didn't and that was 25+ years ago. If we want to make something better, it requires people to work for it and not just talking about how shit is against them and everything is going down.
Finally, as to the "Cold war with Russia/China" ... at least that is not really caused by the "West". Putin's becoming more insane by the day and Xi is about to join him. Ever notice that the idiots go bat shit crazy after 10+ years in power? First 10 years is mostly uneventful. But after that, unless they have some overreaching purpose guiding them prior to that, they go bat shit crazy. China was on a good track for a while -- sure, they had their single party state, but at least leaders were forced to change. Not anymore.
I do wholeheartedly agree that this should be the center discussion topic. But we get "trans this" and "cross dresser that" BS from the right instead, or something about "invasion". And the left talking about how the right has become crazy instead of actual policy.
Oh yes it is. Because in politics, you need to compromise. You can leave politics alone, but politics will not leave you alone. Plenty of examples of that.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tangomargarine on Thursday May 04 2023, @09:32PM
Well, for one thing, the TPP, which could've been used to contravene the Constitution (specifically copyright rules IIRC), because international treaties trump everything. That they were trying to quietly pass behind closed doors before a bunch of different tech companies made a big stink about it, which got it "postponed" or "paused" or whatever the weaselspeak is for "kick down the road a few years, wait for people to forget about it, then do the exact same thing again with a different name and hope it works this time."
I'm sure there are other similarly horrifying things around, but I don't go out of my way to find out about them because it's too depressing.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by acid andy on Thursday May 04 2023, @07:39PM (2 children)
I probably said this before, but it seems pretty clear to me that those in power waited for the Greatest Generation to die out before they starting really dialing up the authoritarianism to 11, because there's no way those people would have stood for this crap or been fooled by the nasty populist tropes that back it up.
Tech has played a dangerous part in this slide into Hell, as we all know, because young people have been growing up, their brains still developing, glued to enticing tech that leaves them no concept of privacy or its merits, conditioning them that communication and even employment are essentially always-on, and on top of that there's the social media algorithms that deliberately feed them the most outrageous, divisive propaganda, much of it paid for by powerful interests to take away rights.
I've said many times I don't think we're going to make it in the short to medium term. Learning to detach from it all mentally whilst minimizing our own contributions to these destructive forces seems to me to be about the best we can do.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2023, @08:26PM (1 child)
Who do you think the target demographic for Fox News was when they started really banging the right wing culture war drums hard in the 90's?
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday May 04 2023, @08:39PM
Fair point. I just think if they were around today seeing their own rights and quality of life starting to erode as well and just how extreme things are getting, there'd be a bigger backlash. Modern western politics seems to rely in large part on almost no-one remembering the 30s anymore.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Thursday May 04 2023, @07:03PM (3 children)
A bit whatabouty to bring up a mere proposal to deflect from an actual law passed by Republicans that actually strips away the very free speech rights they claim to want to protect...
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 04 2023, @10:30PM (2 children)
So, is requiring others to speak specified pronouns also free speech??
Cuz if you want to play that game, it's already tilted.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday May 04 2023, @10:40PM (1 child)
If your goal was to increase the whatboutyness then you have succeeded.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 04 2023, @11:00PM
I am a quick study.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday May 04 2023, @09:23PM (1 child)
Yes, I heard about this on Reddit, and it sounds more like the "well we don't want to do the work to specially comply with your stupid law, so we'll just geo-block anybody coming from your state instead" approach that other companies have taken in regard to Euro GDPR etc. stuff.
I guess if you can use the same excuse to say you're protesting the law, you're sort of killing two birds with one stone. While still staying legal.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 04 2023, @10:33PM
That was the impression I got as well, from some ??Pornhub statement?? (don't recall, don't care) I tripped over elsewhere. Not enough customers to impact the bottom line, so let's just not bother, lest we encourage the others.
One might argue that PH doesn't have the right to make money using Utah's megaphone.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mojibake Tengu on Wednesday May 03 2023, @09:41PM (2 children)
The fundamental problem with Internet is it is considered territorial for law applications while actually being extra-territorial technically.
This will not work in long time scale.
Unenforceable laws are not just socially clumsy, they cause legality and legal concepts degradation at large scale. We all well remember the software piracy era.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 3, Touché) by MIRV888 on Wednesday May 03 2023, @10:25PM
The war on drugs called. If we just hammer away at it for 40 years or so the problem will be solved.
This is worse than torrents.
This is 4chan bad.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by gnuman on Thursday May 04 2023, @06:15PM
What I find amusing is that the parties of "freedom" and "personal choice", as they like to put it, are the ones passing these idiotic laws in place. I guess it's always talk talk with the right wing extremists, but want to put instant barriers onto everything everyone else does.
Even 40 years ago, it's the party of the "small government" that almost always run the largest deficits while complaining about it ... and it was never them.... annoying to say the least.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Opportunist on Wednesday May 03 2023, @10:06PM
No porn for you. If you wanna wank, get a better government.
(Score: 0, Troll) by echostorm on Wednesday May 03 2023, @10:19PM (3 children)
Their stance is that if they can't show porn to kids, they are going to take their ball and go home? Bold strategy, let’s see if it pays off!
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday May 03 2023, @11:00PM (1 child)
Heh. You do know that to do business in Utah they'd have to start tracking people's IDs at fappin' time, right? If you don't, let that be a lesson to you about turning gullible when 'for the children' starts getting thrown about.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Informative) by Common Joe on Thursday May 04 2023, @03:06AM
As a follow up to your comment: Last I heard, it was already required for Louisiana. Seven more states are considering it.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Reziac on Thursday May 04 2023, @02:10AM
I think that would be "take their balls" and go home...
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday May 03 2023, @10:30PM (1 child)
That's rough. Utahn didn't do anything to deserve this - especially the 32.3% [worldatlas.com] of the Utah population who aren't Mormon.
Pornhub should block utah.gov hosts instead: I mean blocking government employee machines from accessing dirty content will hurt a lot of of the right people instead.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday May 04 2023, @03:13PM
Shirley, the people of Utah would not be interested in Pr0n. Even less interested than the bible belt states.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Wednesday May 03 2023, @10:35PM (1 child)
Because this is how you get VPN's.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Tork on Wednesday May 03 2023, @11:06PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Wednesday May 03 2023, @10:47PM (9 children)
If that's what the people of Utah want, so be it. Federalism (if you are young, look it up) is the principle that gives state legislatures the right to decide what their laws are. This also allows states at the other end of the spectrum to make laws their citizens support, such as allowing "abortions" after babies are born. If you don't like how your state is run, move to one that supports your beliefs. Thankfully, we still have that freedom in this country - for now.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 03 2023, @11:39PM (6 children)
So if one state wants to, say, make it illegal to carry certain kinds of signs or wave certain kinds of flags, that's A-OK, right? I mean, if you don't like the law, you can just move to another state, right?
Because legally speaking, pr0n is the same thing as a sign or a flag: Expression of an idea through a visual medium. Even if you don't like it. And that's all protected under the First Amendment. (The Supreme Court has ruled to that effect numerous times.)
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Thursday May 04 2023, @11:25AM (1 child)
If a state makes a law that is unconstitutional, it can be addressed by the courts. The Supreme Court in it's current configuration is all about strictly interpreting the constitution.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday May 04 2023, @08:59PM
The point is that laws that make pr0n effectively illegal have been passed, and ruled unconstitutional, many times in our history. Hustler, for instance, was repeatedly targeted legally for publishing what it did, and the courts consistently ruled that the people going after them didn't have a leg to stand on.
If you don't like it, you have every right to not watch it. But you don't have the right to stop other people from watching it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2023, @12:50PM (3 children)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 04 2023, @05:37PM (2 children)
Yeah, that was probably true in the 18th century. But the US fought a fucking civil war over this sort of thing which ended with several further amendments to the constitution, including the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment [wikipedia.org]. US Supreme Court decisions since then effectively mean that the first amendment applies to states as well.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday May 04 2023, @07:17PM
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday May 05 2023, @10:43AM
My impression is a lot of conservatives have more-or-less decided those amendments don't count anymore, in theory because they believe it was imposed by force but also because they don't like those rules or their implications.
Especially the bit where black people have rights that actually matter. So they just act like those rights don't exist, e.g. defending and protecting a guy for murdering a black guy on the subway for being annoying.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Thursday May 04 2023, @06:27PM
Where is this bullshit coming from? What are you listening to? When a baby is born, then it's called murder if you kill it. Just like if you kill a 90 year old, it's called murder. The only thing doctors can do is withhold artificial means of life support. And please, don't bring up "euthanasia for terminally ill in country X Y or Z" or what other tangent .... Doctors still take an oath of "do not harm".
FYI, Canada has no legal restrictions on abortions. Doctors can do that at any fetal age. Yet, what you are writing about NEVER happens!! Some so-called conservatives wanted to put that into law, but it was rejected for real reasons -- politicians should not meddle in medical decisions. Yet, on US extreme-right, it's like doctors are somehow waiting to kill the kids or something. Ridicules. People have literally died for this BS of so called "conservatives" meddling in people's bodies.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday May 04 2023, @07:10PM
I don't see the part of the Constitution that makes the First Amendment optional in Utah.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cykros on Thursday May 04 2023, @11:40AM (6 children)
Humor me. Open up Yandex.com and type 'free porn.' Now tell me in that indefinitely large list of sites (including the ones American search in its sensibilities refuses to index), how many of them do you think will be requiring ID or remotely even blinking at this Utah law?
Utah should be free to make this law, but nobody should be fooled into thinking it any more than a political stunt. And one with likely negative overall consequences diametrically opposed to its stated intent. They don't have beastiality videos on Pornhub, after all, but I think you'll find that while the old Internet isn't as in your face as it once was, it's very much still there.
And much of it is outside of the regulatory reach of Utah.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Common Joe on Thursday May 04 2023, @03:54PM (4 children)
Why? Why should a state be "free" to limit it's citizens from surfing porn or smoking joints or having a same sex relationship or getting abortions or not believing in a god (or believing in a god) or reading a (banned) book or committing suicide or taxing one group of citizens differently from another or gerrymandering or enforcing laws only on certain populations? This doesn't sound very free at all.
Regulated? Yes. Banning? No.
(I pretty much agree with most other things you said, though.)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ChrisMaple on Thursday May 04 2023, @06:24PM (3 children)
The primary legal argument against allowing marijuana consumption is that it impairs judgement, making traffic accidents (harming other people) more likely.
The primary societal argument against allowing marijuana consumption is that it causes irreversible brain damage. The average IQ in the United States is already below 98.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Common Joe on Thursday May 04 2023, @06:49PM (2 children)
Well, we allow alcohol consumption, the Kardashians on television, and 50 Shades of Gray in the book store, so I don't see these as valid responses.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 04 2023, @10:28PM
Just ran out of mod points, but +1 Ouch.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday May 04 2023, @10:50PM
If only we could ban the Kardashians!
It's an interesting point re: Alcohol vs Marijuana. I think the key differences are:
None of this is to say that alcohol should get special treatment - just to understand why it currently does.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday May 04 2023, @07:23PM
If we just ignore the law and let it stay on the books it'll just get dusted off whenever they want some good old selective enforcement.
I prefer making the citizens of Utah suffer the consequences of their own legislation and hopefully fix it properly by repealing it.