Tag: porn

Anti-Deepfake Porn Bill Unanimously Passes the Senate

The anti-Deepfake porn bill, otherwise known as the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits (DEFIANCE) Act, passed the U.S. Senate unanimously on Thursday with 100 votes.

Introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) while being sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) from the U.S. House, the bill would essentially allow victims of Deepfake porn to “sue anyone who knowingly creates, receives, or distributes non-consensual, sexually explicit content made with artificial intelligence,” per Gizmodo. Victims will have a 10-year statute of limitations.

“The bill is one of the first to address the damages caused by AI, which is currently a self-regulated industry,” the outlet noted. “It doesn’t allow for criminal prosecution, but hopefully, it’s a first step towards more federal oversight.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she pushed the bill after falling victim to Deepfake porn online, which become a significant problem in recent years.

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These States Want You To Show ID To Watch Porn Online

The latest trend in anti-sex action is carding people to watch porn online. After years of passing resolutions to declare porn a “public health crisis,” state lawmakers are coalescing on age-verification measures as a way to address this alleged scourge.

At issue is minors’ ability to access online pornography. Even when porn platforms technically require visitors to be age 18 or older, all minors usually have to do is check a box saying they’re adults and they’re in. Some parents and politicians want more stringent age-verification measures.

Enter laws requiring porn platforms to verify visitor ages. Such laws have already taken effect in at least eight states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia), and bills to do the same were introduced in at least 11 other states in 2023. So far in 2024, legislators in at least seven states (Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, and Oklahoma) have introduced such porn age-verification bills. While the particulars vary, most would result in all visitors to web-based adult-content platforms having to submit a government-issued ID proving their age, either directly to the platform or through a third-party verification service.

Supporters of such measures say it’s no different than carding people in stores who try to buy age-restricted merchandise. But there’s a big difference between momentarily flashing your ID in front of a store clerk and submitting it to a website or app. The latter creates a record, permanently attaching real identities to online activity that many people would prefer stay private.

From a privacy perspective, there are better and worse ways to verify ages on websites. (And not just porn sites: Some legislators now want to require them for social media.) But even the best verification methods would leave people vulnerable to hackers and snoops—and we can’t count on authorities (or tech platforms, for that matter) to enact online age-verification measures in the best ways. These measures are shaping up to be a giant privacy nightmare.

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States Keep Passing Unconstitutional Age-Verification Laws for Porn Sites

Last Friday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed a controversial bill requiring age verification for individuals seeking to use pornography websites in the state. While the bill seeks to prevent minors from accessing explicit materials, the law will require a substantial invasion of adults’ privacy.

The newly signed law started as an unrelated bill aimed at tightening penalties for child sexual abuse and other crimes, with the age-verification provision of the bill added as a floor amendment in March.

“Pornography is creating a public health crisis and having a corroding influence on minors,” the final bill reads. “Pornography may also impact brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and medical illnesses, shape deviate sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as harmful sexual behaviors and addiction.”

The bill requires pornography websites to limit access to adults and to verify a user’s age by accessing their government-issued identification or using another “commercially reasonable method of identification that relies on public or private transactional data.” Under the law, sites that violate the law face $10,000 fines for each instance that a minor accesses pornography.

As a result of this law, it’s likely that major porn websites will cease operations in Kentucky rather than develop a complex and invasive age-verification system. PornHub has so far left seven states that have adopted similar laws. 

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Porn industry asks Supreme Court to block Texas law requiring age verification before accessing sites

The adult entertainment industry will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block a Texas law that requires porn websites to verify the age of users. The case presents the justices with a chance to opine on the legal protections afforded to pornography, particularly in the context of the internet.

The nation’s most conservative appeals court — the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit — ruled on March 7 to overturn a district court injunction that blocked Texas H.B. 1181. The law requires internet companies whose content consists of more than one-third “sexual material harmful to minors” to “use reasonable age verification methods” to limit their distribution to adults, and to display a health warning before showing any such materials. Embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton began enforcing the law in February, and shortly thereafter began a $1.6 million civil action against PornHub for noncompliance. The Free Speech Coalition, an association of the adult film industry, sued to block the Texas law, claiming that it both violated the First Amendment and conflicts with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 is the federal statute that protects internet platforms from liability based on third-party content that violates the law.

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PROTECT Act Could Require Removal of All Existing Porn Online

Is Congress really trying to outlaw all sex work? That’s what some people fear the Preventing Rampant Online Technological Exploitation and Criminal Trafficking (PROTECT) Act would mean.

The bill defines “coerced consent” to include consent obtained by leveraging “economic circumstances”—which sure sounds like a good starting point for declaring all sex work “coercive” and all consent to it invalid. (Under that definition, in fact, most jobs could be considered nonconsensual.)

Looking at the bill as a whole, I don’t think this is its intent, nor is it likely be enforced that way. It’s mainly about targeting tech platforms and people who post porn online that they don’t have a right to post.

But should the PROTECT Act become law, its definition of consent could be used in other measures that do seek to target sex work broadly. And even without banning sex work, it could still wreak major havoc on sex workers, tech companies, and free speech and internet freedom more widely.

There are myriad ways it would do this. Let’s start by looking at how it could make all existing online porn against the law.

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Congress pushes bill to let Americans SUE if fake porn images of them are published after Taylor Swift deep fake scandal

A group of lawmakers are stepping in to try and take down Taylor Swift ‘deep fake’ perpetrators with a bill that would allow Americans to sue if fake porn images of them are published. 

Popstar Taylor Swift became the latest target of nonconsensual deepfakes after artificial intelligence generated sexually explicit images of her flooded the internet this week. 

The dozens of graphic images showed Swift in a series of sexual acts while dressed in Kansas City Chief memorabilia after she became a regular at football games to support of her boyfriend Travis Kelce. 

Swift is now considering legal action against the deepfake porn website that posted the images amid calls from fans and even the White House for legislative action to combat the growing issue. 

Lawmakers decided to step in to combat the rise of nonconsensual deepfakes with a new bill that allows victims to take action against fake porn made in their likeness.

The DEFIANCE Act of 2024 was introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Ranking Member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Senator Amy Klobuchar, R-Minn.

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Oklahoma proposal would make watching porn a felony, ban sexting outside marriage

An Oklahoma state senator has proposed a law that would make watching pornography a felony and ban sexting among people who are not married.

The bill, set to be introduced next month by state Sen. Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin), would prohibit consuming or producing sexual content that “lacks serious literary, artistic, educational, political, or scientific purposes or value” in any medium.

The measure defines “obscene material” as the depiction or description of any “acts of sexual intercourse,” including those that are “normal or perverted, actual or simulated.”

Content depicting sodomy and masturbation would also be off the table, in addition to videos, movies, video games and text messages that involve “sadomasochistic abuse” and “acts of excretion in a sexual context.”

Under the measure, pictures of human genitals or women’s breasts would also be banned as well as “lewd exhibition” of the “buttocks.”

It would carry prison sentences of up to a year and $2,000 fines.

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Pornhub Admits To Profiting From Sex Trafficking, Agrees To $1.8 Million Settlement In Deal With Feds

Aylo Holdings, the owner of Pornhub – one of the largest adult content websites, has admitted to profiting from the sex trafficking, including minors, and has agreed to pay $1.8 million to the US government, as well as separate payments to women whose videos were posted without their consent, federal prosecutors in New York announced late Thursday.

The move comes months after the acquisition of Aylo (formerly MindGeek) by investor and Rabbi Solomon Friedman, who says he wants to turn the company’s image around following this and other scandals involving illegal content on the platform.

In addition to the $1.8 million and individual compensation to women harmed by trafficking, Pornhub must appoint an independent monitor for three years, after which the charges will be dismissed.

“It is our hope that this resolution, which includes certain agreed payments to the women whose images were posted on the company’s platforms and an independent monitorship brings some measure of closure to those negatively affected,” according to US Attorney Peace in a statement.

The company is estimated to have generated more than $200 million in 2022, with operating margins of nearly 30%. 

James Smith, head of the FBI’s New York office, said Aylo Holdings “knowingly enriched itself by turning a blind eye” to victims who told the company they had been deceived and coerced into the videos.

Prosecutors said Aylo has agreed to pay victims compensation, but details such as who is eligible and how they can apply will be forthcoming.

The charge stemmed from Aylo’s role in hosting videos and accepting payments from GirlsDoPorn. -CBS News

The operators of GirlsDoPorn, the now-defunct adult film production company, were charged with and eventually convicted of a range of sex trafficking crimes, including coercing young women into sexual acts on camera which were then posted on Pornhub and other adult websites.

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Capitol Police Investigating Second Sex Video

Capitol Hill police are reportedly investigating the existence of another explicit video taken by a former congressional staffer less than a week after Washington was rocked by the release of a video featuring a gay ex-staffer fornicating in one of the Senate’s most esteemed hearing rooms.

Semafor scooped that the House quietly launched an investigation regarding “purported, unbecoming behavior” by a former staffer for Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA). The effort, undertaken last year, ended with “no conclusive evidence.”

In an interview, the staffer denied participating in the video which made the rounds on Snapchat among congressional staffers and associates. In the video, a man is seen masturbating inside a House office building identifiable by standard Capitol Hill furniture and carpeting. Semafor obtained a screenshot from the video which showed two men engaged in a sex act in an office setting. The video was attributed to a user by the name “Adam J” with the handle “Anjackson2019.”

Rep. Newhouse said the video was brought to his attention in June of 2022 when he was told that one of the participants was a suspected member of his staff.

“As soon as the office was alerted, we immediately contacted the appropriate House entities to conduct an independent investigation,” the spokesperson for Newhouse said, adding that “the office will not be providing further comment on personnel matters.”

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Senate Staffer Who Was Fired for Having Anal Sex in the Senate Hearing Room in a G-String Jock Strap Blames Fallout on Homophobia

Democrat staffer Aiden Maese-Czeropski shocked the nation when video was posted of him and his partner having anal sex at the US Capitol in the Senate Hearing Room. Little Aiden was was buck naked except for a g-string jock strap as he straddled the Senator’s desk in the hearing room and smiled for the camera.

Aiden Maese-Czeropski , the Democrat Senate staffer embroiled in a salacious scandal in the Capitol has announced plans to pursue legal action against what he calls defamatory allegations and a politically motivated attack on his character.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Maese-Czeropski works as a legislative aide for Senator Cardin, handling foreign policy, tax, and trade issues. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a B.S. in Society and Environment in 2020.

Maese-Czeropski has also worked for the Virginia Democratic Party as a field organizer and for the liberal environmental group Friends of the Earth.

Aiden was fired on Saturday after the video made the rounds on the internet on Friday night.

Now he is blaming the fallout on homophobia.

He’s the real victim.

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