Pornhub, the largest adult content website in the United States, blocked users in Texas because of a legal dispute stemming from a Lone Star State law that requires age verification before logging on.
The adult website sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over the enforcement of a 2023 law that requires users to prove that they are at least 18 years old and read health warnings before accessing the site.
But last week, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the age verification requirement, leading Pornhub to "completely disable access to our website in Texas" or face hefty fines and penalties.
"Applying rational-basis review, the age-verification requirement is rationally related to the government's legitimate interest in preventing minors' access to pornography," the court said. "Therefore, the age-verification requirement does not violate the First Amendment."
The Canadian-based company framed its dispute with Texas as a free speech issue and warned that the law would only lead to minors being harmed in the long run.
"Unfortunately the Texas law for age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. Not only will it not actually protect children, it will inevitably reduce content creators' ability to post and distribute legal adult content and directly impact their ability to share the artistic messages they want to convey with it," the company said in a statement.
Pornhub argued that its has "robust trust and safety measures ... in place."
It went on to say the "only effective solution" to protect young people and adults is to verify users' ages on their device "and to either deny or allow access to age-restricted material and websites based on their verification."
Paxton claimed victory over the porn site.
"PornHub has now disabled its website in Texas. Sites like PornHub are on the run because Texas has a law that aims to prevent them from showing harmful, obscene material to children," he wrote in a statement posted on the social media platform X.
"We recently secured a major victory against PornHub and other sites that sought to block this law from taking effect. In Texas, companies cannot get away with showing porn to children. If they don't want to comply, good riddance," he said.
Pornhub has also blocked access to its website in other states, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia, with age-verification laws, USA Today reported.
