Pornhub Now Blocked In Texas
Residents of Texas—the second most-populated state in America—can no longer view the world’s #1 porn site as of today. Pornhub is blocking users from the right-wing hellhole due to the state’s unconstitutional “age verification” law that went into effect late last year. Pornhub and other adult content sites sued Texas over the law, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that Texas can in fact enforce the age verification, which led to Pornhub’s pullout today. The message from Pornhub that people in Texas now see when they try and go to the site:
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’ stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors.
Pornhub parent company Aylo (formerly known as Mindgeek) is facing fines of over $3.5M for not blocking access until this week, if the Texas AG’s countersuit is successful. Via Chron:
Under the law, sites in violation are subject to up to $20,000 in fines per day for penalties regarding age verification, plus a $250,000 fine if any minor happens to see porn on the website. Paxton’s countersuit seeks to fine Aylo for each day going back to Sept. 19, 2023, when the 5th Circuit issued its first stay on the lower court’s ruling.
[Chron]
