Amid crackdown, porn platform seeks govt help to make 'porn normal and boring'

The pullout from Utah was preceded by a struggle in Louisiana, which has a similar age verification statute. Solomon stated that their website remained operational in Louisiana since the requirements are somewhat different – they are not required to gather personal information.

Team Newsable

First Published Jun 26, 2023, 12:27 PM IST | Last Updated Jun 26, 2023, 12:27 PM IST

Solomon Friedman, the new owner of Pornhub, has said that instead of cracking down on porn websites, the governments should take pride in sexual expression and help to make porn normal and 'boring'. In his interview with a news organisation, Friedman said that the society has moved to a direction where people are proud of sexual expression.

"I think society has moved in the direction where we are proud of sexual expression," said Ethical Capital Partners' Solomon Friedman.

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"The fact that it's adult is going to be boring, just like the fact that (legalised) cannabis in Canada has become boring," he added.

Earlier, Porhnub's parent firm MindGeek was bought by a Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners (ECP). The move made ECP the sole controller of other sites including YouPorn. The ECP founder Solomon Friedman talked openly in an interview with a news agency about the problem his company faced after the acquisition and what all it had done to remove sexually abusive and violent content on its websites.

It is reportedly said that most of its websites faced action in different countries due to a wide number of its underage audience and a large content related to sexual violence and abuse.

Soon after the acquisition, ECP ended up in a sea of legal troubles. Several of its websites were pulled from the US state of Utah in May after they were ordered to verify the ages of users.

For months, website owners and authorities in France have been negotiating how to put a 2020 age verification rule into action. Two of MindGeek's sites have not implemented age verification and face a court judgement on July 7 that might result in their closure.

Solomon Friedman made it clear that the company doesn't want any underage users on its websites. "We do not want any underage users on our websites whatsoever," ECP founder Solomon Friedman told AFP.

Friedman also stressed the procedure on the company-owned websites, which automatically results in the removal of the information. He stated unequivocally that the website "reviews it after it's removed."

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