War On Porn
AG Barr Joins Attack on Section 230 With Unusual Request to Congress
In an extremely unusual move by the U.S. Justice Department — part of the executive branch — AG William Barr sent to Congress today a legislative proposal to undermine Section 230, the so-called “First Amendment of the internet.”
Lindsey Graham Takes Aim at Section 230 With Yet Another Bill Proposal
Senator Lindsey Graham (R, South Carolina), Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, quietly scheduled yesterday an item on the agenda for Thursday’s committee meeting, aiming to discuss a new bill, S. 4632, which he called the Online Content Policy Modernization Act.
Utah Legislative Panel Stages Peculiar Anti-Porn Hearing
A Utah legislative panel last week — convened by GOP state lawmakers following a campaign of disinformation by conservative activists — culminated with misleading pronouncements about the supposed availability of “obscene material harmful to minors” in educational databases in the state, and with a call to press criminal charges against the makers of those databases.
Top Digital Rights Organization Highlights Woodhull's Anti-FOSTA Litigation
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the leading digital rights advocacy nonprofit, released yesterday a comprehensive report praising the Woodhull Foundation’s ongoing lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of FOSTA-SESTA legislation.
Trump, GOP Senators Renew Attacks on Section 230
President Donald Trump and Senate Republican leaders renewed their ongoing attacks on Section 230 yesterday, once again making the so-called “First Amendment of the internet" a campaign issue.
Analysis: Appeals Ruling Guts, Does Not Strike Down 2257
Yesterday’s ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit represented a clear victory for the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and co-appellants in their decade-long fight against the unusual, punitive 2257 record-keeping requirements and inspections targeting the adult industry.
XBIZ Miami Virtual Day 3: Self-Care, Social Media and the War on Porn
The first-ever virtual edition of XBIZ Miami opened its third and concluding day with one final round of business and personal connections in the online lounges and lively speed-networking sessions, before the concurrent Industry and Talent Tracks offered an eye-opening look at the current state of the "War on Porn," an insightful "State of the Industry" discussion, and vital information on how content creators can legally protect their work, manage self-care and monetize their social media following.
Op-Ed: Mashable's 'Porn Week' Shows Mainstream's Struggle With Fair Adult Coverage
Mainstream entertainment and tech news site Mashable published in the last few days a series of articles centered around the adult entertainment industry under the banner “Porn Week.”
German Authorities Target Sex Workers Posting Adult Content on Twitter
German authorities have been stepping up their efforts to fine in-country sex workers for posting sexually explicit content on open online platforms like Twitter, forcing them to take down posts on the U.S.-based — and Free Speech-protected — sites.
Australia: 'Porn Using' Employee Awarded Workers' Comp From Anti-Porn Lobby
A workers' comp case recently brought forth in Australia against an anti-porn group by one of their own employees provides another bizarre example of plaintiffs deploying the debunked concept of “porn addiction” and stigmatizing language as legal strategies.
Oregon Town Targets 'Nude Dancing' With Help From Religious Lobby
The city council of Drain, Oregon passed new regulations last week with the specific purpose of outlawing an adult entertainment establishment, under the guidance of an out-of-state, religiously motivated lobby linked to 1980s anti-porn crusader Ed Meese.
UK: Daily Mail Report Stigmatizes Online Sex Workers
Amidst increasing calls for government intervention on freedom of online expression, right-wing U.K. tabloid The Daily Mail continued their attack on the adult industry and sex workers with a stigmatizing report using blatantly classist and stigmatizing language.
The Guardian Continues Stigmatizing Porn, Now in Theater Reviews
Liberal transatlantic publication The Guardian is continuing its pattern of publishing content that stigmatizes adult entertainment and sex workers, with the anti-porn messaging today making its way even into their theater review section.
Senate Commerce Committee Holds Hearing on PACT Act, Section 230
This morning, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet. held a lengthy hearing on Section 230, assessing the impact of what the committee calls “the law that helped create the internet” and examining proposed reforms to it, particularly the PACT Act.
Meet 'Abstinence Bar,' the Homegrown Chinese Version of #NoFap
A new article by a Chinese academic sheds light on “Abstinence Bar,” China’s homegrown version of the #NoFap semen-retention movement, which also endorses the scientifically discredited, Medieval/Victorian idea that cis men lose a kind of masculine “vital energy” whenever they ejaculate.
'Nude Dancing' Puts a Conservative Oregon Town in a Political Dilemma
After last month’s soft opening of a new adult entertainment establishment in Drain, Oregon, the conservative small town became yet another battlefield in the nationwide moralistic crusade against sex-oriented businesses and sexual expression.
German TV Clones British 'Porn Panic' Reality Show 'Mums Make Porn'
The first episode of a new German version of the mainstream franchise “Mums Make Porn” — a reality show where women who are not part of the adult industry, and are mothers, are coached into making a porn scene that they would approve of — aired last night.
Twitter Hack Offers Rare Glimpse Into Anti-Porn Shadowbanning Practices
Yesterday’s hack of a large number of prominent Twitter accounts — which led to the company’s disabling of “blue checkmark” (i.e., verified) accounts for part of the day — also resulted in the unexpected confirmation of the practice known by users as “shadowbanning,” and by Twitter as “blacklisting.”
Strike 3 Case: Appeals Court Rebukes D.C. Judge for Anti-Porn Bias
A three-judge panel at the D.C. Circuit court ruled yesterday in favor of Strike 3 Holdings’ appeal, allowing them to be granted subpoenas in copyright cases they were filing. This reversed a lower-court ruling where a judge had taken the unusual step of lambasting the adult entertainment company for the nature of its content.
China Boasts of Paying Rewards to Citizens for Snitching on Adult Websites
Another report from China about their anti-porn investigations of the first half of 2020 claims that their censorship agencies handled over 140,000 reports from members of the public during that period, and that the Chinese government handed out over $147,000 as rewards for snitching on “pornography and other online harms.”