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‘We’ve been scarlet lettered:’ PornHub pulling out of Texas impacting paychecks for adult content creators

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‘We’ve been scarlet lettered:’ PornHub pulling out of Texas impacting paychecks for adult content creators


HOUSTON – Adult content creators are sounding the alarm after months of Texas being locked out of the world’s largest pornography website: PornHub.

The decision was made by PornHub’s parent company, Aylo, in response to the State of Texas’ decision to force websites to verify the age of visitors to their site.

The ruling is known as Texas House Bill 1181. It boils down to restricting sexual material on the internet from minors. The method – verifying your age each time you visit.

“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’s stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors,” reads a message on PornHub’s website.

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Aylo, a Canadian-based company, owns several other large online pornographic websites, including Brazzers, RedTube and more.

After five months of blocking the second-largest state in the U.S., adult content creators are feeling the impacts of the law.

Gage Goulding: “How did this impact your job?”

Allie Eve Knox: “Several ways. So, we’re creators and so first of all, us being able to sell to a large audience is very important for us to continue our income.”

Belle Creed: “If I put a video out on Friday and the law went in and I’m used to selling a certain amount of like percentage of that video, and then it’s cut in half because half of my customers now can access the site.”

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Knox is a Texas-based adult content creator. She’s backing PornHub’s fight against the State of Texas.

Creed also created adult content.

The argument isn’t over checking the age of visitors to adult websites – it’s about who should check the age.

Texas wants websites to verify the age of visitors.

PornHub wants the device the visitor is using to tell them how old the visitor is.

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“The easiest answer is really to use a device-based filtering system,” Knox said. “If I’m going to give my child a device, I’m going to put a filter on it. And I’m not only going to just filter for adult content, I’m going to filter for things like violence or making purchases, those types of things.”

Both the state and PornHub won’t budge on their sides, leading to an ongoing legal battle in the nation’s highest court.

According to a brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the Free Speech Coalition against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the group argues the law is violating the First Amendment by “improperly burdening adults’ right to access sexual content online.”

Gage Goulding: “Do you believe that it’s free speech?”

Allie Eve Knox: “My God. Absolutely. They have to have adults telling other consenting adults that they can’t view this type of content. This is crazy.”

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Gage Goulding: “And the concern is, is that you give a mouse a cookie and then they’ll ask for a glass of milk?”

Allie Eve Knox: “Yeah. So, these types of laws pass and it just leads to other poorly written laws, particularly against us.”

Adult content creators like Knox are stuck in the middle. Their paychecks also taking a hit as a result.

“We’ve been scarlet-lettered, right,” Knox said. “We can’t go back and be teachers, or be nurses. We can’t go back and make different decisions than we’ve already made. We don’t want to have to talk and know about legal things. We just want to sell our content on the Internet.”

The fight against the State of Texas is ongoing. In the meantime, Texas is still blocked from using PornHub entirely.

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Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.



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Texas sues Netflix for allegedly spying on kids, addicting users

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Texas sues Netflix for allegedly spying on kids, addicting users


Netflix was sued Monday (May 11) by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accused the streaming company of spying on children and other consumers by collecting their data without consent, and designing its platform to be addictive. Ram Nabong reports.



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Texas sues Netflix, alleges platform spied on kids and collected data

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Texas sues Netflix, alleges platform spied on kids and collected data


The state of Texas announced a lawsuit against streaming giant Netflix on Monday, accusing the company of spying on children and other consumers by collecting their data without consent and designing the platform to be addictive.

Texas claims that Netflix has falsely represented to consumers that it didn’t collect or share user data while it actually tracked and sold viewers’ habits and preferences to commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies.

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The lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, claims that “Netflix’s endgame is simple and lucrative: get children and families glued to the screen, harvest their data while they are stuck there, and then monetize the data for a handsome profit.”

The state of Texas announced a lawsuit against streaming giant Netflix on Monday. (Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watched you,” Texas added in the lawsuit.

NETFLIX CO-FOUNDER REED HASTINGS TO STEP DOWN, DEPARTURE IS ‘SPOOKING INVESTORS’

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NFLX NETFLIX INC. 85.39 -2.10 -2.40%

The complaint quotes comments made by former CEO Reed Hastings who said in 2020, while he was still leading the streaming company, that “we don’t collect anything,” amid questions over Big Tech companies’ data collection practices.

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Netflix was also accused of quietly using “dark patterns” to keep users watching on its platform, such as an autoplay feature that starts a new show after a different show ends.

NETFLIX RAISES SUBSCRIPTION PRICES ACROSS ALL PLANS

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit. (Cheney Orr/Reuters)

Paxton said in a press release that Netflix “has built a surveillance program designed to illegally collect and profit from Texans’ personal data without their consent, and my office will do everything in our power to stop it.”

The attorney general said he’s charging Netflix under the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act and seeks to require Netflix to stop the unlawful collection and disclosure of user data, require Netflix to disable autoplay by default on kid’s profiles, and to secure injunctive relief and civil penalties.

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FOX Business reached out to Netflix for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.



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6 people found dead inside a boxcar in Texas, officials say | CNN

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6 people found dead inside a boxcar in Texas, officials say | CNN


Six people were found dead inside a cargo train boxcar in a Texas city along the southern border on Sunday, officials said.

The bodies were found in a Union Pacific train at a rail yard in Laredo, around 160 miles south of San Antonio, just after 3:30 p.m. local time, said Jose Espinoza, a public information officer with the Laredo Police Department.

The circumstances of their deaths are unknown, said Laredo police spokesperson Joe Baeza, according to CNN affiliate KGNS, and an investigation is underway.

Union Pacific operates across the border and is the only railroad that services all access points into Mexico, according to the freight company’s website.

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Temperatures on Sunday afternoon in Laredo were in the low-mid 90s, though it’s unclear whether heat was a factor.

Union Pacific said it was saddened by the incident and is working closely with law enforcement to investigate.

Laredo police said they received a call around 3 p.m. from an employee at the Union Pacific rail yard, KGNS reported. The bodies were discovered during a routine rail car inspection, police said. No survivors were found.

CNN has reached out to Laredo police for more information.

“It’s a very early phase of the investigation. There’s not a lot to reveal right now,” Baeza said, KGNS reported.

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The immigration status and ages of the deceased are not yet known, Espinoza said.

US Customs and Border Protection referred CNN to the Laredo Police Department, saying “The incident remains under investigation by Laredo Police Department and Homeland Security Investigation and Texas Rangers.”

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, HSI and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

“It’s a very unfortunate event,” Espinoza told CNN. “It was too many lives that were lost.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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