this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Pornhub goes dark in Arkansas after age verification law kicks in::Pornhub operator MindGeek has blocked all users in Arkansas from the site after the state’s new age verification law went into effect.

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[–] [email protected] 236 points 1 year ago (5 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Pornhub operator MindGeek has blocked all users in Arkansas from the site after the state’s new age verification law went into effect on Tuesday.

The Arkansas law, SB 66, doesn’t ban Pornhub from operating in the state, but it requires porn sites to verify that a user is 18 by confirming their age with identifying documents.

On Wednesday, Pornhub blocked all traffic from IP addresses based in Arkansas in protest, arguing that the law, which was intended to protect children, actually harms users.

“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,” MindGeek wrote in a message replacing the site’s front page for affected users.

Responding to this wave of bans, MindGeek has decided to block access to its sites from states where the laws have gone into effect.

So, instead of rolling out age verification systems, it says it decided to block access entirely, calling on users to contact their state representatives to oppose these laws.


I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Godnroc 90 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Good bot! I didn't know I missed having a summary until now

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[–] [email protected] 204 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Arkansas: your kids should be working in a mine, not wanking online

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[–] BrudderAaron 126 points 1 year ago (17 children)

Oh no. I'm in Arkansas.

Guess I'll turn on the VPN.

[–] ipha 114 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I’m in Arkansas

I'm sorry.

[–] psycho_driver 50 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I grew up there. The northern part of the state is honestly one of the prettiest parts of our country. It is also filled with some of the most vile people. Vile people from everywhere else go there to retire and add to the smegma pot.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You just described basically the whole south.

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[–] instamat 27 points 1 year ago

Oh no. I'm in Arkansas.

That’s putting it mildly

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[–] GiddyGap 117 points 1 year ago (13 children)

The party of small government.

[–] Iron_Lynx 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For a party that prides itself on being all about "small government" and "no nanny state," this is some surprisingly big government nanny state shenanigans

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[–] Ilovethebomb 94 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Who in their right mind would expect a free porn site to go to this level of hassle?

Or is this a puritanical measure in disguise?

[–] [email protected] 103 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It's the second one. I saw article where they talked how Florida was the first to pass it, pornhub put time and money into developing what they needed to comply and saw a 90% decrease in traffic because nobody wants to hand over their ID for free porn.

[–] Ilovethebomb 94 points 1 year ago

Wouldn't even want to hand over my ID for a paid service.

[–] remus 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

After MindGeek started complying with the Louisiana law earlier this year, the company said traffic dropped by 80 percent.

It’s literally in the linked article lol

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pornhub would make more money simply starting a vpn service rather than try to gather IDs

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[–] Potato_in_my_anus 36 points 1 year ago (5 children)

When this happened in Utah a few months ago, Google searches for VPN increased in like over 1000%.

The best Free VPN IMO is ProtonVPN,

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[–] [email protected] 88 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Didn't read the bill cause pdf and cause it's a bill, but found another article describing it, and it says at the end:

The bill also would apply to material that as a whole lacks serious "literary, artistic, political, and scientific value for minors."

Isn't that like 99% of the internet?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

Why are you against Pdf files?

Edit: Though reading my question out loud I get it...

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[–] cokane_88 78 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Things you aren't legally allowed to do in Arkansas: watch porn, have an abortion, read, write, or wipe your ass.

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 year ago (18 children)

Dang, if kids just had some kind of guardians that would be responsible for their media consumption while every media device out there had basic functionality to support such supervision.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In other, unrelated news, VPN’s are experiencing an unexpected spike in traffic. More at 5.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don't understand why they use pornhub, it's so much easier for them to get actual sex with their favorite dating app: 23andme.

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[–] SloppyPuppy 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

I wanna see over the next year how rape and sexual harassment rates change.

[–] CapraObscura 71 points 1 year ago

Oh man, if only we had statistics from countries where porn is banned, or some sort of scientific study from multiple countries where porn was banned and then unbanned to see what the change was...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101130111326.htm

Spoiler: They'll probably go up slightly.

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[–] Treczoks 41 points 1 year ago

Well, that basically is an age check. People of Arkansas are obviously not old enough to deal with porn when they support a government that produces such stupid laws.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon 35 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Won't someone think of the horny Arkansans?

Seriously the Republicans are beyond the pale.

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[–] Ab_intra 33 points 1 year ago (11 children)

I remember reading about this before. This is so stupid. Making people verify with offical documents.. People are going to get their documents stolen so much more now. Nice job Arkansas!

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[–] Snekeyes 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Freedum loving repubeicans inbound to other states?

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[–] atlem 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Is this a scheme of VPN providers? Do they pay off politicians?

[–] RaoulDook 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are still tons of porn sites that don't give a fuck about those state laws and don't comply. No VPN needed, just browse to an unblocked site.

They can't force compliance of foreign hosts anyway

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[–] Clbull 30 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It's downright hypocritical that MindGeek has been outright supportive of the UK government's efforts to push age verification checks on porn and have even tried to lobby our country to implement AgeID as the solution.

But the moment US states start demanding that they verify user ages, they start geoblocking.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Verification should be a 2fa letter with the logo on the envelope.

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[–] Glowstick 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Xhamster is now requiring personal identification for EVERYONE in the whole US, not just in Arkansas. WTF?!

[–] schrodingers_dinger 38 points 1 year ago

Xhamster is probably the last site I would want my personal info related with too lmao

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[–] cumcum69 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Pornhub's site was already pretty dark. Like it's mainly black

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