The owner of Pornhub and RedTube has blocked access to the adult platforms in France, in protest against a law requiring porn sites to verify the age of their users.
Parent company Aylo said it would stop operating in France as of Wednesday, having criticised the French government's measures to shield children from inappropriate content by making porn platforms take extra steps to ensure that users are 18 or older.
"I can confirm that Aylo has made the difficult decision to suspend access to its user-uploaded platforms (Pornhub, YouPorn, RedTube) in France. We will be using our platforms to directly address the French public,” a Pornhub spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Under France's so-called SREN law, which was passed in 2023, adult content platforms have until Saturday to implement age verification measures. French media regulator Arcom can request that porn sites are blocked and issue fines if it finds their checks are lacking.
Solomon Friedman, a partner at Ethical Capital Partners, which owns Aylo, told reporters in a briefing call on Tuesday that the law was "ineffective", "dangerous", and "potentially privacy-infringing".
"It's a matter of putting our values first, and that means communicating directly with the French people to tell them what their government is refusing to tell them," he said, in reference to a message that Aylo's platforms will display to French users on Wednesday.
Aurore Bergé, French minister for gender equality, wrote "au revoir" in a post on X in response to Aylo's statement.
"There will be less violent, degrading and humiliating content accessible to minors in France," she wrote.
Clara Chappaz, France's junior minister for artificial intelligence and digital technology, said on X: "If Aylo would rather leave France than apply our laws, they are free to do so."
European Union regulators announced last week that they were investigating four major porn websites over suspected breaches of the bloc’s online content rules, which include provisions for protecting children from pornographic material. These include risks that age verification measures deployed by the sites are ineffective.
The European Commission said it has opened formal proceedings against Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos under the 27-nation bloc's Digital Safety Act.
Aylo said last week that it was aware of the investigation and was "fully committed" to ensuring online safety of children. XNXX, Stripchat and XVideos did not comment.
