Pornhub and YouPorn lock access in France
Aylo, the parent company of the porn sites YouPorn, Pornhub and Redtube, will block access to the content of these platforms in France from Wednesday in order to protest against the mandatory age verification of users, as announced on Tuesday.
« We made the difficult decision to block access to our pages in France from tomorrow afternoon and use our platforms to contact the French audience directly, » said Alex Keksi, Vice President of Community and Brand at Aylo, at an online press conference.
Pornobs pages lead to dispute between Paris and Luxembourg
Users who want to go to Pornhub or Youporn will therefore come across a homepage on which the position of the company is explained in detail with a picture of the « La Liberté Guidant Le Peuble » painter by the painter Eugène Delacroix. Aylo claims to have seven million visitors every day on its various platforms with X content.
We made the difficult decision to block access to our pages in France from tomorrow afternoon.
Alex Kekesi
Vice President of Community and Brand at Aylo
The obligation to check the majority of their users has been in effect for all pornographic websites in France since March and to those who are located in and outside the European Union. For example, you must request sending a photo or an ID document and offer at least one method that respects the principle of double anonymity, which enables it to prove its age -old, without revealing its identity, otherwise sanctions threaten that can extend to the blocking.
For his part, Aylo defends an age review at the level of the devices and its operating system. « Google, Apple and Microsoft, all have the ability to check the age of the user at the level of the operating system or the device and to give an age information from every website or application, » argued Solomon Friedman from the Ethical Capital Partner’s investment fund, the owner of Aylo. « The measures introduced by the French government are unreasonable, disproportionate and ineffective, » he added.
Stigmatize adults or protect children?
« Canding out of websites to check the age does not mean stigmatizing adults, but only protecting our children », the deputy minister for artificial intelligence and digital, Clara Chappaz, reacted to AFP. « If Aylo prefers to leave France than to apply our law, they are free to do so, » she continued.
« Pornhub, YouPorn and Redtube refuse to adhere to our legal framework and decide to go. All the better! There will be less violent, humiliating and degrading content that is accessible to minors in France. Goodbye, » commented Aurore Bergé, minister for equality between women and men and the fight against discrimination, in the social network X.
