‘Is Anyone Else’s Pornhub Not Working?’ Virginia Democrat Riled Up After Anti-Porn Law Gets Entire State Blocked by Site
The President Pro tempore of the Senate of Virginia, State Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth), called out Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin after an age-verification law lead to Pornhub blocking access for everyone in the state.
The law requires pornography websites operating in the state to work more aggressively to find out whether a visitor is 18 or older to gain access to the site. One of the approved methods of verification includes requiring users to upload copies government-issued identification.
A bipartisan coalition of Republican and Democrat state senators, including Lucas, voted in March to pass the bill through the General Assembly. Youngkin signed the bill into law in May and it goes into effect on Saturday.
In response, Pornhub decided to block access to the website in the entire state on Thursday, arguing the new law puts user privacy at risk and is not effective at preventing minors from accessing adult content.
“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,” a message posted to Pornhub on Thursday reads to Virginia citizens. “Until a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Virginia.”
Lucas reacted to the news by calling out the GOP governor for sitting “on his ass” and not setting up a proper system for verification.
“Is anyone else’s Pornhub not working,” Lucas asked her followers on Twitter. “In all seriousness, we passed a bill during this session to protect children from online porn. However the executive branch had an obligation to create a system for age verification. Instead the Governor sat on his ass and relied on these websites with porn to do the verification process. This is a massive security risk to the personal information of (millions?!?!) of Virginians.”
Virginia now joins Utah as the second state to lose access to the world’s most popular website after signing anti-porn legislation into law.
