Ben
Russia has once again blocked two of the world’s most popular porn sites – Pornhub and YouPorn (both of which are owned by a company called MindGeek) – following two judicial rulings that found, unsurprisingly, that they distribute pornography.
It’s not the first time it’s happened – there was a brief block in place last year – and rather than come up with any new advice for unhappy users in Russia unable to access the site, the Russian agency in charge of the ban simply retweeted its advice from the first block. Specifically, to go outside and meet someone in real life instead.
Now, there could be a whole lot of reasons why people legitimately can’t do that, and censoring two specific websites certainly isn’t going to put a stop to pornography in Russia. It’s not really even clear if that’s the aim, or if protection of its domestic porn industry is somewhere at the heart of it.
Either way, if you’re in Russia and wonder why you can’t access Pornhub or YouPorn anymore, then @roscomnadzor is your point of contact.
