this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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From the article: "Unsurprisingly, this skyrocketed searches for the best VPNs. According to a SlashGear report sent to Mashable, searches for "Texas VPN" jumped by 1,750 percent in the past day. It also spotted a 1,600 percent increase for the phrase "How to access Pornhub.""

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[–] jeffw@lemmy.world 116 points 9 months ago (3 children)

What if it was just lobbying from the VPN industry this whole time?

[–] BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world 60 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Probably the politicians bought VPN stock just before this was ruled. Just like so many "randomly" happened to buy video conference stock just before the COVID lockdown?

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[–] pop@lemmy.ml 106 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Lots of shady free VPNs out there from Chinese/Russian companies. Now instead of just letting people watch porn, they'll send their data to a shady/foreign entity. The apps will ask all the permissions, and people who don't know shit, will grant them.

Same thing will happen when they ban Tiktok.

Well done, You played yourself.

[–] ferralcat@monyet.cc 36 points 9 months ago (8 children)

Definitely no shady VPNs run by white westerners though. Theyve all got impeccable morals through ans through. Glad you cleared that up.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 13 points 9 months ago

Reread the comment considering it's taking the view point of a Republican in Texas who voted this law, it will make more sense.

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[–] Kekzkrieger@feddit.de 14 points 9 months ago

I dont think so, Texas finally solved the problem with porn, now nobody can watch it and everyones life (and children) are finally safe.

/s

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[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 84 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm sure the people who legislated all this into place were the first ones to access a VPN to get onto PornHub

[–] essteeyou@lemmy.world 57 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I suspect they invested in companies that sell VPNs.

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 36 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Kape technologies comes to mind, which owns Private Internet Access, CyberGhost, and ExpressVPN, and is in turn owned by an Israeli billionaire

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Sagi

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[–] hempster@lemm.ee 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Using a VPN that is beholden to shareholder's mood swings let alone a publicly tradable company is dangerous

[–] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 73 points 9 months ago (7 children)

At some point, Republicans will surely cross the line where their policies are so unpopular that people stop voting for them, right?

[–] scoobford@lemmy.zip 38 points 9 months ago (3 children)

They are heavily entrenched in Texas. They will have to badly piss off most people enough that they all go vote in the same cycle.

Our state government has actually been getting much more radical over the past few years, because the only people who vote are conservative radicals, because everyone else is either apathetic or aware that their vote won't matter unless millions of people suddenly wake up tomorrow and vote.

[–] JackiesFridge@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Millions of people not voting because it would take millions of people voting to elicit positive change and nobody is doing that is one of the most frustrating things.

[–] Tinks@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I refuse to be part of that group. I'm a democrat living in KS and I vote in every single election I can. My candidate may not win, but damnit they will count my vote and know that I dissent.

[–] Bear_pile@lemm.ee 15 points 9 months ago

I look at it as earning my right to bitch about our elected officials

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Not as long as the other guy is some dirty liberal who believes in socialist conspiracies like the holocaust having actually happened....

(Yes this is sarcasm, not actually saying the holocaust didn't happen)

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[–] jhulten@infosec.pub 15 points 9 months ago

Unfortunately that isn't how identity politics works.

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[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 48 points 9 months ago

I should register bringbacktheporn.tx.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.world 46 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (7 children)

To be fair current age verification is useless. We all know clicking a button does not verify anything.

Also we know that submitting personal data to a website to verify your age is terrible. Big no no.

I'm curious of what will happen in my country. Here in Spain government said that they will implement a new age verification system using Anonymous digital certificates. The government will issue those and you have to give your ID but the certificate itself it's anonymous and the website won't be able to know who is the person behind the certificate. While there's no implementation yet, I hope they use the kind of anonymous certificates that, once expedited, the government also does not know who is using the certificate when serving as a certificate authority to validate its authenticity.

Let's see how it goes. I'm afraid even while being privacy friendly with this system Pornhub will block access here to as a threat to other places. At the end is a private company and blocking minors from accessing their content cost them big money, and, of course, money is the only thing that matters to them.

[–] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

To be fair, who gives a shit about age verification?

I do not care what your child does on the Internet.

[–] MostlyGibberish@lemm.ee 25 points 9 months ago

Right. Why do I have to submit a retinal scan and 3 forms of ID to watch porn because parents can't be bothered to learn basic computer skills and monitor their own children?

[–] realharo@lemm.ee 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The right way to implement this is where they don't even have any persistent identifier that could be used for tracking. They should only ever see a derived single-use signature that after verification gives them a yes/no answer and nothing more.

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 44 points 9 months ago (8 children)

There's a certain argument that it might be preferable from a privacy standpoint if people used VPNs in general, though it sure isn't ideal from a performance standpoint.

[–] laxe@lemmy.world 39 points 9 months ago (3 children)

It also costs money. For many people, every monthly fee makes a difference.

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[–] lemmylem@lemm.ee 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Wireguard is super fast compared to OpenVPN

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[–] bloopernova@programming.dev 40 points 9 months ago

Go on, Texas, try to ban VPNs.

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 37 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] Iamsqueegee@sh.itjust.works 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

POON. Muad’Deepthroat. Feyd-Rawdog. The story just lends itself to porn parody.

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[–] RedditWanderer@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The only thing that matters is texas loses

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[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago

... Then they banned VPNs. Thanks to the Republicans we have scorched sky's... We don't know who stroke first, but without Internet we are now a real communicative country with people who..... Billy! Put your rocks down man! I'm trying to tell you s story about how important Republicans are to us and yet you choose to distract the entire class with your rock tossing game!

[–] blazera@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I wonder how many people here never saw porn before they were 18.

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[–] sagrotan@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

They "right porn" to keep it entirely out of the public eye so they can follow their illegal and inhumane sexual shit in private. You're searching for the real perverted bastards? The one's who's shouting against sexual freedom the loudest. Search their computers.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Just gonna leave this predictable comment right here: https://lemmy.world/comment/8449238

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