Texas' Crackdown on Porn Has Officially Begun

An appeals court has cleared the way for Texas to enforce a law requiring age verification before someone can surf porn sites, and, not surprisingly, the porn sites aren't happy about it. In a 2-1 ruling on March 7 by the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that vacated an injunction against HB 1181, the judges noted that "the age-verification requirement is rationally related to the government's legitimate interest in preventing minors' access to pornography," per Wired. "Therefore, the age-verification requirement does not violate the First Amendment." More:

• Pornhub: One of the first casualties was the Aylo-owned porn site, which pulled access to its content in the Lone Star State as of Thursday, per the Houston Chronicle. "Until the real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Texas," a statement read.
• Background: HB 1181 was signed into law last June, per Fox News, but in August, a US District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction in response to a suit by plaintiffs including Pornhub, stating that the legislation might violate the First Amendment rights of the adult entertainment industry. Later in the year, the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit overturned that injunction.
• Lawsuit: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a complaint last month suing Pornhub's parent to force it to comply with the law. "Texas has a right to protect its children from the detrimental effects of pornographic content," the AG said in a statement at the time of his suit. "I look forward to holding any company accountable that violates our age verification laws."
• Fines: The penalty for violating the Texas law is up to $10,000 per day, with an additional $10,000 per day if the offending company keeps identifying data, and $250,000 if any minors are exposed to that site's content because of the breach.
• Other states: At least six others—Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia—have similarly blocked access to porn sites that don't do age verification, reports Axios.
• Pornhub reaction: Alex Kekesi, vice president of brand and community at Aylo, calls the Texas age-verification law "ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous." "Not only will it not actually protect children, it will inevitably reduce content creators' ability to post and distribute legal adult content," Kekesi notes.

(More Texas stories.)