Pornhub Blocked in Entire Utah Due to State’s Verification Law


On Monday, presumably in protest of a new Utah law requiring more stringent age verification methods for pornographic content, Pornhub cut off access to the state.

Axios says that when Utah residents go to the website, they now see a message from the company saying that it has “made the hard decision to completely block access to our website in Utah.” Fox 13 in Salt Lake City says that people started to notice a change Monday morning when they got a 403 “This state is not whitelisted” message on the site. It was soon changed to include a long statement from Pornhub that said, “As you may know, your elected officials in Utah are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. 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.”

The new rule, Online Pornography Viewing Age Requirements, was enacted on Wednesday. It was passed in March. Pornhub told Axios that the attack also hit Brazzers, YouPorn, and Redtube.