Aylo Freesites, the owner of Pornhub, Redtube and YouPorn, plans to stop offering adult content to French users on Wednesday afternoon, the 4th of June, in protest against government measures requiring age verification, according to Politico.
Aylo Freesites, like other pornography platforms, has a legal obligation to implement age verification mechanisms by the 7th of June.
France has gradually introduced a requirement this year that all adult websites must ask users to confirm their age by providing credit card info or ID details.
This measure is part of the French government’s efforts to protect minors from inappropriate content. The law was adopted in 2023.
A notice will be displayed on Aylo Freesites platforms explaining this decision to French users, including that the company does not wish to compromise user privacy, company representatives told reporters on Tuesday.
The industry giant has fought tooth and nail with French officials against these measures.
FRANCE IS PORNHUB’S SECOND LARGEST AUDIENCE IN THE WORLD AFTER THE US, AHEAD OF THE PHILIPPINES, MEXICO AND THE UNITED KINGDOM, ACCORDING TO THE COMPANY’S INTERNAL STATISTICS FOR 2024.
Solomon Friedman of Ethical Capital Partners, owner of Aylo Freesites, told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that the French law is «dangerous», «potentially threatening to privacy» and «ineffective».
To protect privacy, platforms must offer a “double-blind” system that prevents platforms from seeing users’ personal information. However, Aylo believes that this system does not work well enough and could expose data to hacking or leaks.
“Our values are above all else, and that means we have to communicate directly with the French people to tell them what their government refuses to tell them,” Friedman said.
The European Commission is also developing other solutions for age verification and has accused the Aylo platforms of violating the rules on the protection of minors set out in the Digital Services Act.
However, Aylo, like Meta, wants age verification to be carried out on devices and believes that countries should target operating system developers such as Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS or Google Android, rather than pornography platforms.
Friedman said they want to work with technology companies to ensure that the platform is only used by adults by blocking access at the root.
French Digital Affairs Minister Clara Chappaz accused Aylo in a post published on X on Tuesday of lying about French measures, which she said were aimed at protecting privacy.
“Lying when you don’t want to comply with the law and hold others hostage is unacceptable. Adults are free to consume pornography, but not at the expense of protecting our children,” she said.
Aylo Freesites did not specify how long the ban would remain in place, adding that it hoped to find a solution soon to unblock adult content in France.