Texas Pornhub Law

Overview

The Texas Pornhub Law, also known as the Texas Porn Law or the Texas Porn Age Verification Law, refers to 2024 legislation in the state of Texas that required users of pornography sites like Pornhub to legally verify their age before entering the site as an attempt to prevent access to minors. The bill was originally signed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in mid-2023. On the day that Pornhub suspended its services to Texans in March 2024, various reactions surfaced on social media sites like Twitter / X where users posted screenshots of the pop-up screen they received when they tried to enter the site.

Background

In June 2023, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1181^[1] into law which required age verification and health warnings to view pornographic websites.^[2] The law was set to be enacted on September 1st, 2023.^[2] However, on September 1st, U.S. District Judge David Ezra struck down the law, claiming that it violated free speech rights, was overall vague and raised privacy concerns based on the fact that an age verification would require a traceable government-issued ID, allowing the government access to personal user data that it's not required to delete.^[2]

On March 7th, 2024, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the age verification requirement.^[3] The court cited a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prevented the sale of obscene materials to minors.^[3] The 5th Circuit did not uphold the law’s required health warnings because they unconstitutionally compelled speech.^[3]

On March 14th, 2024, Pornhub suspended its site for Texan users.^[3]

Online Reaction

On March 14th, 2024, screenshots of a pop-up given to Texan Pornhub users spread on social media sites like X.^[4] For instance, X^[5] user @rawsalerts posted a screenshot, receiving over 18,000 likes in a day (shown below, left).

Viral quotes of the post quickly surfaced, like one shared by X^[6] user @AliEzzoBezzo on March 14th, who said, "this is a good thing," gaining over 63,000 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Some internet users mocked Pornhub's tone in their pop-up message, like X^[7] user @DAKKADAKKA1 on March 15th, 2024, who shared a Jurassic Park screencap captioned, "Your upset that children cannot access your porn site?" gaining over 360 likes in five hours (shown below, left).

Other reactions surfaced on 4chan, like a thread started by a user on /pol/ ^[8] on March 14th, gaining numerous replies (shown below, right).

While many championed the ban, others portrayed skepticism and opposition, like X^[8] user @botticellibimbo on March 14th, 2024, who believed that the state did not care about the rights of minors and instead wanted access to data. She ended her quote by writing, "You really believe the govt cares about kids?" receiving over 1,400 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Reactions

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References