Pornhub has disabled its site in Texas to object to a state law that requires the company to verify the age of users to prevent minors from accessing the site.
Texas residents who visit the site are met with a message from the company that criticizes the state’s elected officials who are requiring them to track the age of users.
The company said the newly passed law impinges on “the rights of adults to access protected speech” and fails to pass strict scrutiny by “employing the least effective and yet also most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’s stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors.”
It’s not blocked at layer 4 or anything. The website simply geolocates you and denies application access for users geolocated to NC. VPN gets around it fine.
The bigger issue is that plenty of other sites still allow access… So it’s effectively punishing the rule followers.