back to article Pornhub lockdown and fact-free Zuckbots – welcome to 2025

This column may be out of date two days after publication. That's when the US Supreme Court decides whether the Constitutional right to free speech overrides the laws against online porn adopted by many southern states. Obscenity, smut, and pornography have generally won that argument since the 1960s, even in the pre-internet …

  1. Guy de Loimbard Silver badge
    Childcatcher

    It's an easy go to

    The moment you create FUD around children, the great unwashed, uneducated masses will rally, and there's strength in numbers, particularly if you want to promote an idea, or worse an ideology.

    The more you tell the lie, the more it becomes believable. Paraphrasing a certain German Propaganda leader in WW2 Germany.

    Let's see what the US Supreme Court suggests is correct and go from there I say!

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      Re: It's an easy go to

      I think the only good option is to curtail "freedom of speech" because if they don't, what else can this widely misunderstood concept [*] be weaponised for? Antisemitism? Discrimination? Hate speech? Fake news?

      * - It shouldn't give people the right to spew whatever ill educated bullshit their minds are capable of articulating, no matter what Musk says. There should be potential consequences for saying bad things, or you'll end up with a population of Alex Joneses...

      1. Tilda Rice

        Re: It's an easy go to

        LOL Fake news? Or censored news? Like Biden removing stories about his rugrats laptop? The truth about Right Sektor/Azov/Nuland and Pyatt in Ukraine?

        You've really succumb to the brainwashed NGO news sponsored by George Soros haven't you.

        I wonder if you would be so cavlier if one of your daughters was a victim of grooming in Rotherham?

        Or the "fake news" they told people not to spread about Axel Rudakubana, when in fact they wouldn't report the truth - yet later it turns out this was an alledged terrorist (waiting on verdict)- here it is in your favourite comic no doubt.

        https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/30/southport-suspect-axel-rudakubana-appears-in-court-on-new-charges

        Left brain people call anything they don't agree with, far right, hate speech or discrimination. And use "safety" to suppress contrarians.

        Its what the US wanted to do by plotting to murder Assange.

        Get off your leftie high horse. As long as people don't incite harm, people should be free to speak... well, freely.

        1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

          Re: It's an easy go to

          Upvted, coz I like freedom of speech, but I wish you hadn't mentioned Rotherham.

          Elon and his friends are coming across as total twats here in the UK because (living here) we are well aware that we've had decades of inquiries and done bugger all about it, and well aware that the problem is not confined to particular racial groups (either perpetrators or victims). Apparently a whole load of loud commentators from across the pond are unaware of this but don't feel obliged to do any research before sounding off on the subject.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: It's an easy go to

            One group you do want to address here, who generally don't ever get a mention, are those individuals who are sexually attracted to children but who have never acted on this attraction. Potential trouble that hasn't yet happened, in other words.

            Freely prescribing testosterone blocker drugs TO ADULTS ONLY with checks to make sure that the person requesting them is the person using them would be useful..

            The potential offender then gets some relief from sexual thoughts about children, which is the closest to a cure for paedophilia that science has yet managed. They can then get on with their life with a reduced level of stress. You'd need to police this service to stop it being abused by people who wanted to change sex outside of medical supervision, but it should be a thing simply because it would reduce the demand for paedophile pornography.

            1. UnknownUnknown

              Re: It's an easy go to

              Sounds like Pre-Crime and the Minority Report Universe..

          2. MachDiamond Silver badge

            Re: It's an easy go to

            "Apparently a whole load of loud commentators from across the pond are unaware of this but don't feel obliged to do any research before sounding off on the subject."

            It works both ways since journalism has been thrown out with the bath water for decades and only what's sensationalist gets published. With distance comes the removal of any comprehensive reportage. I should also not gloss over that people are living on headlines and sound bytes more than reading a whole article. The Xitter generation loses focus past 140 characters. For UK topics, there will be talk 'down the pub' that doesn't happen in the US. For issues in the US, people in the UK are often not in tune with the bigger picture in the US. Forget the "northerner/southerner" differences with people a few hundred miles apart when the US has regions a few thousand miles apart and separated by heavy duty mountain ranges.

        2. jasonbrown1965
          Big Brother

          Re: It's an easy go to

          Please do not sully myriad sacrifices by Assange with MAGA nonsense.

          The case against Assange got green lit by the Trump administration, not the Democrats. As was the CIA assassination plot.

          Yes, Obama did consider it, but decided against it because of the threat against press freedoms. Unlike the orange man, whose authoritarianism is a threat to all freedoms.

          https://www.yahoo.com/news/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-london-shoot-out-inside-the-ci-as-secret-war-plans-against-wiki-leaks-090057786.html

        3. ridley

          Re: It's an easy go to

          Tell me, do you get a discount when you buy tinfoil in bulk?

        4. Potemkine! Silver badge

          Re: It's an easy go to

          DNFTT

          1. Roger Kynaston

            DNFTT

            As a principle I totally agree. Though I think that the troll above merits El Reg to bring back FOTW. The trouble is that the trolls have now taken over and they feed themselves. I don't know what the solution is to the serious problem my flippant observation has made.

        5. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: It's an easy go to

          As someone who lives in Rotherham - and raised a daughter here - can I just tell you and all the others using it to score points to fuck the fuck off please?

          There has been an inquiry in the events in Rotherham (Jay 2015). There has been a national inquiry into child exploitation (Jay 2023). We don't need another £200m and 7+ year inquiry raking over the same coals and opening old wounds by making the victims testify again. We need to implement the 20+ recommendations - including many of those ignored by the previous Conservative administration because the recommendation was against their ideology.

          Some of those were in the Childrens Wellbeing and Schools bill 2025 - which adding the inquiry as an amendment would have thrown that bill out of Parliament and leaving the government unable to bring it back until next year. Making things worse for kids.

          1. Snowy Silver badge
            Facepalm

            Re: It's an easy go to

            Yes get on with it not another inquiry!

          2. tojb
            Thumb Up

            Re: It's an easy go to

            Absolutely right, all that was ever needed would be to just enforce the law. A friend, years ago, got home from a night out, turned out her lights, then got up again to be sick in the kitchen sink and looked up to see her cab driver standing in the garden. The police at the time did absolutely nothing, and the same guy was back again and stalked her for months, even though at minimum a case of trespass should have been very easy to make.

        6. stungebag

          Re: It's an easy go to

          This is a great post of you're playing nut-job bingo. Soros, grooming gangs, Assange, it has the lot.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It's an easy go to

        If you curtail free speech you curtail freedom.

        Perhaps you should restrict porn to those who can prove their age. It doesn't need a special government controlled id. We as a society agree to restrict children, it is temporary, we do not agree to restrict adults. Do not provid the government with tools that can be used beyond the stated purpose.

        1. Agincourt and Crecy!

          Re: It's an easy go to

          How do you prove your age without providing a third party with PII?

          1. imanidiot Silver badge
            Trollface

            Re: It's an easy go to

            By sending them a (badly) photoshopped together and slightly blurry photo of "Donald J. Trump's" passport?

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: It's an easy go to

              that just proves your dodgy as fuck, and a danger to women as you have SA and other criminal convictions

              1. imanidiot Silver badge

                Re: It's an easy go to

                None of that disqualifies him from looking at porn though. And apparently, given his actual conviction record, the US is fine with those things (But god forbid someone see a sliver of a nipple)

          2. 'bluey

            Re: It's an easy go to

            Use the age verification from Leisure Suit Larry and the Lounge Lizards from years ago, that was a bastard even when well over 18.

            1. Casca Silver badge

              Re: It's an easy go to

              All the more a bastard when you are not from the US or have english as your first language

              1. 'bluey

                Re: It's an easy go to

                > All the more a bastard when you are not from the US or have english as your first language

                LOL, yeah, I still need to work out who Mia Farrow was.

          3. MachDiamond Silver badge

            Re: It's an easy go to

            "How do you prove your age without providing a third party with PII?"

            There's also the reverse of a company not wanting to have to keep records of their customers once the billing has gone through. Remember when Ashley Madison's database leaked?

        2. shamgetz
          Facepalm

          Re: It's an easy go to

          That sounds like a great idea, with zero risks or flaws. So if there's no centrally controlled id, presumably anyone wanting to view porn simply uploads their passport or drivers' license to the porn site? Also, regardless of whether it's centrally controlled or not, what's to stop my kids nicking my passport out of my cupboard and using that to access smut?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: It's an easy go to

            > presumably anyone wanting to view porn simply uploads their passport or drivers' license to the porn site?

            Oh the opportunities for blackmail when the web site gets hacked would be endless.

            Believe me its not pretty or nice - its hell.

          2. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
            Devil

            Re: It's an easy go to

            Don't worry, there will be a lot of screenshots of EM (for France) or DT (for the USA) passports available soon on Facebook...

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: It's an easy go to

              seem to recall boris johnson passports were cheaply available back when brexit was more of a thing..

        3. hoola Silver badge

          Re: It's an easy go to

          With free speech comes responsibility.

          This is something that far too many fail to understand. Just posting a load of babble now that is shared millions of times due to Social Media is part of the problem. Minority views are suddenly promoted to the forefront because of idiots re-sharing something that should not be.

          Shouting from a box on a street corner has a very limited transient audience. Sharing (often far worse) material on global platforms where there is to all intents no moderation or responsibility is another.

      3. Ahosewithnoname

        Re: It's an easy go to

        The risk with that is the type of free speech that ends up being curtailed fits whatever the government of the day decides should be curtailed

    2. wimton@yahoo.com

      Re: It's an easy go to

      Freedom of speech makes only sense if there is a level playing field: if one party is yelling trough a battery of megaphones, it is well possible that other speech cannot be heard anymore, although you are free to utter it.

    3. joed

      Re: It's an easy go to

      Also a "perfect" way to advocate for tax increases. No one will dare to vote against our "future". Right.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Opinion are perhaps free for now, but the consequences can be severe, and the protections negligible, especially when opinions are no longer ephemeral.

    Even if data is eventually scrubbed, networks memoize training data, with removal possible but not implemented.

    In cryptography one needs to consider not if encryption can be broken, but for how long a message can be useful to an adversary before the encryption is broken, and desing protections accordingly.

    These days you need to apply that principle and remove the encryption aspect, then consider if it's safe posting.

  3. Howard Sway Silver badge

    Mobsters did very well out of Prohibition

    The people who didn't do so well were the established brewing companies. And if the court passes a think-of-the-children judgement, this is going to be a huge pain for, amongst others, Zuck and Musk with their absolute-freedom-of-speech pose. The Republican election victory needed a coalition of libertarian tech bros and moralising fundamentalist bible bashers, and whatever the court decides, at least one of these factions is going to be extremely unhappy with the outcome, probably with lots of angry blame being placed on the other.

    1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

      Re: Mobsters did very well out of Prohibition

      A bit like Musk vs Bannon on H-1Bs. I don't know about Trump, but Johnson used to like to play each side off against the other; keep them both their fighting.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Mobsters did very well out of Prohibition

      Ultimately isn't it a problem for their advertising business ?

      You have to believe an advert on some level, if a pitch for safety and reliability of some new car is sandwiched between pet eating aliens and Jewish space lasers - why would you buy, and why would the maker pay for this 'exposure' ?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Mobsters did very well out of Prohibition

        "Jewish space lasers" are going to be the standout purchase there - you know they are going to work, although are we talking about the mind control lasers used to keep the free world in a state of docile obedience, or the anti personnel lasers used to keep the middle east in peace and harmony?

      2. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: Mobsters did very well out of Prohibition

        More to the point in such a case, what advertiser in their right mind would authorise their product being pitched alongside such material?

        Advertisers wanting to assert their rights about NOT having adverts showing next to stuff THEY regarded as objectionable is at the crux of Musk's legal posturing towards the people who pay him (those advertisers)

  4. Omnipresent Silver badge

    I find it amusing

    That you guys still try to find the "good", and are assuming there are still laws, in tech.

    These are not good people doing good things. They are very bad people who will strip the skin off babies and eat them for breakfast before holding up their bones for their mothers.

    Then they will retreat to their private islands and underground bunkers to watch you turn on each other.

    The ONLY thing that can stop them is you. You have to stop using their web sites. You have to stop clicking on their outright evil click bait posts, and you have to stop clicking on the headlines with their insane exclamations in the headlines. Every time you do, you empower them, and enrich them...and you cannot do it. You can't. They have you by the balls.

    People in the US are checking out and disappearing. They don't want anything to do with these people or their cult of personality. I suggest the rest of the world do the same.

    The U.S. knows that if you are on line, you will be brain washed, baited, manipulated.... Musk, and suckerberg, are what happens when the internet warps your mind. Many people will have to be deprogrammed, many will never be able to recover.

    If you want a real thorn to tackle, facebook zombies are now walking around with meta glasses on constantly posting you to the internet and feeding you directly to the AI without your permission.

    Get offline. Get off grid if you can, that's what these guys are doing, and they own this chit.

    1. Khaptain Silver badge

      Re: I find it amusing

      " Musk, and suckerberg"

      They are low hanging fruit and easy to stop ( I have never had an account with either or any of the social media sites)... If you want more, then stop using Google, Amazon, Netflix, Social Media of all kinds, free weather apps or your phone, Waze and the list goes on..

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: free weather apps or your phone

        What is so evil about using them? Please enlighten us as to what particular evil they spread...

        As for the rest of your his list. Already done years ago.

        1. Ahosewithnoname

          Re: free weather apps or your phone

          Well, most of the weather apps I've used disseminate nothing but fake news, that's for sure

          1. MachDiamond Silver badge

            Re: free weather apps or your phone

            "Well, most of the weather apps I've used disseminate nothing but fake news, that's for sure"

            Ya, well, that goes back long before there was an app for it.

      2. Ahosewithnoname

        Re: I find it amusing

        Netflix is more dangerous than X and FB? Ok

      3. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: I find it amusing

        "If you want more, then stop using Google, Amazon, Netflix, Social Media of all kinds, free weather apps or your phone, Waze and the list goes on.."

        Done.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: I find it amusing

      People in the US are checking out and disappearing. They don't want anything to do with these people or their cult of personality. I suggest the rest of the world do the same.

      The U.S. knows that if you are on line, you will be brain washed, baited, manipulated....

      I have tried to parse and reparse this and it fails every time. The only way I can understand it is if there's more than one US, this one and the other one that voted for this lunacy in the first place.

      A fine way to lecture the rest of the world...

      1. Omnipresent Silver badge

        Re: I find it amusing

        People who normally show up to vote..didn't. You know who showed up? Minorities, young men, people who don't normally vote.... you know why? tiktok told them to. Facebook and x targeted them, with the help of putin and friends.

    3. heyrick Silver badge

      Re: I find it amusing

      "People in the US are checking out and disappearing."

      ....?

      Isn't that a euphemism for self termination? Seems a bit extreme. Why not try going to Canada or something (before Trump builds another wall)? Or maybe come over here to Europe? The service industry would love an influx of people habituated to leaving big tips. ;)

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: I find it amusing

        LOL, even Mexico is starting to look like an attractive place to move to :-)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I find it amusing

          Looking forward to a Canada-Mexico alliance to contain the "problem"

        2. MachDiamond Silver badge

          Re: I find it amusing

          "LOL, even Mexico is starting to look like an attractive place to move to :-)"

          I'm still a big fan of "innocent until proven guilty" rather than the other way around, so I'll keep out of Mexico, thank you very much.

      2. Ideasource

        Re: Isn't that a euphemism for self termination

        nope. its refers to an actioned exodus trend stemming from internet gossip channels commonly grouped and called upon as "social media platforms" that have gummed up the pipeworks with all the ills of society available right outside your front door.

        ahh "Internet"...

        ... Now with 2 exponential scoops of stinky social garbage and a sprinkling of mouse turd droppings in almost every box. find the comment/post section in almost any linguring area to get your complimentary mouse droppings today.

        act now and get the free neural rototiller service pack 3 today.

        or not. and why not naught? well because. that's why not naught. duh.

      3. Andrew Scott Bronze badge

        Re: I find it amusing

        Niece already did that, but nobody over there speaks american.

    4. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: I find it amusing

      "They are very bad people who will strip the skin off babies and eat them for breakfast before holding up their bones for their mothers"

      ONLY if it is profitable.

      Follow the money. It works for the tech sites, it works for the mobsters and it works for the corporations

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Porn no big deal and no IDs

    I bet most parents do not consider their kids seeing porn a big deal. The whole issue is virtue signalling by politicians.

    As for solution: No personal IDs are necessary. Sell anonymous age verification cards as alcohol. Even allow alcohol makers hide the code into the bottle caps. Or cigarette packages. Then use the single use code in a browser or OS level. The rest is parents' responsibility.

    And, sure, no measure is 100% kid-proof. But the 80/20 rule applies to address most problems.

    1. Dorkalicious

      Re: Porn no big deal and no IDs

      I'm far more concerned my kids might grow-up with prude hats stapled to their foreheads. I know they already, as teenagers, have an interest (I'm a parent and I work in tech; you all know how I know). I think the most important things are that they consume quality, ethical porn that helps them explore what they like consensually, which is certainly the sort of message that content creators on OF, Fansly, Twitch and - yes - even 4Chan, are able to deliver now. It is something approaching the democratization of porn.

      There has to be something going right for kids these days. It sure as hell isn't education, getting a job that pays well, buying a house and settling down to have kids, then retiring on a decent pension.

      1. Valeyard

        Re: Porn no big deal and no IDs

        that was just downright creepy to read

      2. heyrick Silver badge

        Re: Porn no big deal and no IDs

        "that they consume quality, ethical porn"

        Serious question. I saw some pretty hardcore stuff while at boarding school and one thing I never understood: What's the attraction of watching other people bonk? Just seems like sick voyeurism...

        "what they like consensually"

        It would probably help much more if a person was able to say "whoa, you're cute" to somebody of the same gender without the screaming and the bible throwing.

        "the democratization of porn"

        Okay, that's just weird. Sex is a natural act. It happens. It's where you and I came from. It needs open dialogue, not porn.

        "There has to be something going right for kids these days."

        I can't help but think that somebody who wants their kids to enjoy porn as some sort of instruction manual has failed as a parent. Just "have that talk" and be open minded if they go off script. It's their body and their life so their choice, just nudge them gently if you sense an impending train wreck...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Porn no big deal and no IDs

          >What's the attraction of watching other people bonk? Just seems like sick voyeurism...

          What's the attraction of watching a young couple in love commit suicide or a loyal soldier murder the king spurred on by his ambitious wife ? Sick weirdos the RSC

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Porn no big deal and no IDs

          > Serious question. I saw some pretty hardcore stuff while at boarding school and one thing I never understood: What's the attraction of watching other people bonk? Just seems like sick voyeurism...

          Why do some people get turned on by red hair but not blonde? Short but not long? Or vice versa. Some get turned on by watching, others don't.

    2. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

      Re: Porn no big deal and no IDs

      "The rest is parents' responsibility."

      That, at least in the USA, is the true problem. Very few parents truly want to be and actively practice being responsible for their children. Oh many will talk a good game but most are just giving lip service. Sure, many are "helicopter parents" but have not the slightest clue how to digitally protect their children. It was much easier for me as a working IT pro in the 1990s and early 2000s - I can't imagine how hard it must be now. All I can say for sure is I'm VERY glad my child-rearing days are behind me.

      I am NOT saying that ID verification is a good idea - it most certainly is NOT. However these days, even as a since-retired pro, I'd have a hard time keeping ahead of a tech-savvy teen. And I'm one of the few who did actually practice parental responsibility in the digital realm. Thankfully my now-adult son is a (more or less) responsible adult, making his own way in the tech fields. Yeah, I'm reasonably certain he got around some of my digital protections/roadblocks - but I at least make him work for it, and I think he and I both have some measure of satisfaction in that. Sadly, far too few parents will ever even attempt a sufficient level of responsibility in the digital arena - some because they don't know how, and some because they are clueless, and some because they are self-absorbed assholes who are more worried about their own digital influence/bullshit than what their offspring are doing...

  6. Jedit Silver badge
    Headmaster

    "ask what the real motivation is"

    We know what the real motivation is: the creation of a Christofascist state. The Project 2025 manifesto very helpfully spells out everything they plan to do to achieve it, and they're hardly coy about why.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "ask what the real motivation is"

      Yeah, Trump should've embraced his inner Larry Flynt (rather than pay hush money to pornstars) ... honesty is the best policy!

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: "honesty is the best policy"

        The real question is...

        Does Trump even know what honesty is? He lies and lies and lies so much that I'm sure that he'd think that if the truth came and hit him in the face with a piece of wet fish that it was 'Fake News' or 'Woke'.

        30,000+ lies last time. How many will it be this time?

        I'm sure that he is planning on not leaving the POTUS job in 4 years but handing it over to Don Jnr in 2032, then to Barron in 2050. Ok, hopefully, that is a lie. At least I recognise it as such. The OJ....? Not a chance. He believes what his ass lickers tell him.

        1. Jonathon Green

          Re: "honesty is the best policy"

          It’s not about whether Trump (or whoever) *knows what honesty is, it’s about whether they *care*w hat honesty is when faced with the opportunity for a shit load of money and/or the opportunity to excercise massive personal power with very little responsibility or consequences. And I think we know what the answer to that is…

      2. Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch Silver badge

        Re: "ask what the real motivation is"

        His inner Larry Flynt is his outer Larry Flynt.

    2. Ideasource

      Re: "ask what the real motivation is"

      i dont want to barumpumpumpum to a facist melody. yuck!

      screw that. I'll never be a drummer boy Folæciomadoré Tureia Christīanàdo. You hear me?.. NEVER!!!!

      I like jazz/blues way too much for that. Not that I found the existing tune very appealing for that matter.

      eh, go figure.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Part of the problem here is "the definition of porn". If you depict forcible rape of someone who's fully clothed, is that porn? If you show someone comfortable and happy while sunbathing nude, is that porn? It's really in the eye of the beholder, and Justice Stewart said as much in 1964:

    "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."

    Your porn may be my art, and vice versa. As to the sheeple going along with whatever's decided by the elected leaders, the best reference may be:

    "... it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or parliament or a communist dictatorship. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

    Hermann Goering, International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (1946)

    1. a pressbutton

      deliberate irony? the quote

      "... it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or parliament or a communist dictatorship. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country. Hermann Goering, International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (1946)

      Turns out to be a fake :). There is no record of Goering saying that in the Nuremberg trial. There is hearsay he said something on the same theme, but not the reported words.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        The quote cited above does not appear in transcripts of the Nuremberg trials because although Goering spoke these words during the course of the proceedings, he did not offer them at his trial. His comments were made privately to Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking American intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted free access by the Allies to all the prisoners held in the Nuremberg jail. Gilbert kept a journal of his observations of the proceedings and his conversations with the prisoners, which he later published in the book Nuremberg Diary.

        Snopes

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          But the nice thing about fact-free internet is that if it's on the internet he did say it.

          1. MachDiamond Silver badge

            "But the nice thing about fact-free internet is that if it's on the internet he did say it."

            But the nice thing about fact-free internet is that if it's on the internet he did say it. ~Leonard of Quirm

            FTFY

  8. ChrisElvidge Silver badge

    So you have to register your name and age to watch porn

    Won't it be funny when someone downloads the user database and publishes it? How many politicians, judges, senior law enforcement officers will be on the list?

    1. Alumoi Silver badge

      Re: So you have to register your name and age to watch porn

      None, they won't have to register. Only the peasants.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So you have to register your name and age to watch porn

      Yeah, makes me wonder if Rush (hillbilly heroin) Limbaugh's name (or Bill O'Reilly) might have been part of data recently pilfered from BayMark Health Services ...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I miss the old Register

    This opinion piece hits all the key talking points: Trump is a mobster, check. VPNs are for criminals, check. Nazi Germany reference, check.

    Anyone remember when The Register's motto was "Biting the hand that feeds IT"? Now it seems The Register wants carry the same agenda as the rest of the news media and bite the hand of every politician they can find.

    Bring back the old Register. Tear the tech titans to shreds, but leave the political agenda to others.

    1. abend0c4 Silver badge

      Re: I miss the old Register

      Are you saying that the tech sector should make no comment on the competing political forces seeking to harness it for their own ends?

      And who, precisely, are these "others" who do have your permission to comment on political matters and how do they apply for your approval to exercise their speech to the extent permitted?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I miss the old Register

        Tech sector should totally call out the political powers, but should not be compelled to pick a side. That's just dumb and anti free speech.

        Tech should be entirely apolitical.

    2. STOP_FORTH Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: I miss the old Register

      I miss the old Register too.

      Unfortunately, the tech bros who dominate the Internet have moved into politics.

      1. amajadedcynicaloldfart Bronze badge

        Re: I miss the old Register

        @STOP_FORTH

        On the off chance that you don't know there is an archive.

        https://www.theregister.com/Archive/

        1. STOP_FORTH Silver badge
          Thumb Up

          Re: I miss the old Register

          Thanks for that link. I shan't be clicking on it. I'd rather moan in the comments section than re-visit the glory days. It takes less time.

    3. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: I miss the old Register

      Technology is inextricably linked with politics these days. As Marshall McLuhan famously wrote back in the 1960s, the medium is the message, and the World Wide Web as communications medium facilitated a radical shift in how social and political messages are communicated. Furthermore, most techies have a more than passing interest in free speech and free thought as those notions apply to, for example, Linux and other free software, so writing about the impact of anti-pornography legislation certainly seems relevant to the concerns of many of this site's readers.

      The article is also clearly labeled as an opinion piece, and it would not have been difficult to ascertain the overall tone of the article from the headline, so you could have skipped over it. Perhaps you should take some time for introspection and consider why reading an opinion which contradicts your own is so upsetting to you.

      1. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: I miss the old Register

        Technology is inextricably linked with politics these days."

        I agree and it's important to have a broader view of the world as a scientist/engineer. The Ian Malcolm quote from Jurassic Park is a keen insight, "just because we can, doesn't mean we should" (I may have butchered that). How would one know anything about "should" if they live a cloistered existence?

    4. omz13

      Re: I miss the old Register

      You can’t separate tech from politics: tech realized they were subject to regulation, and regulation was subject to political whim, ergo time to get political to change the regulations so tech can do what it wants. Throw in some Ayn Rand. Add a dash of Libertarianism. Welcome to 2025. It sucks.

    5. Felonmarmer

      Re: I miss the old Register

      How far back do you want to go? It would have to be pre-Musk to get away from any criticism of him, for space / tech / business rather than political reasons, not being met by a barrage of down votes and accusations of lefty-wokeness for political reasons.

    6. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: I miss the old Register

      Bring back the old Register. Tear the tech titans to shreds, but leave the political agenda to others.

      Seriously? Nobody remembers Mr. Page's side quests or Worstall's guest spot?

    7. Casca Silver badge

      Re: I miss the old Register

      AC trump defender, check.

    8. imanidiot Silver badge
      Meh

      Re: I miss the old Register

      Take off your rose tinted glasses, find a mirror and do some introspection. The tone and topics of the Reg have changed, but not nearly by the extend you seem to think. Are you sure it's not YOU who has become a bitter old Anonymous Coward?

      1. seldom

        Re: I miss the old Register

        Back when people could spell

    9. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I miss the old Register

      Yup, back when it was British and sane.

  10. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "facts will always trump opinion"

    Sorry, but it seems to me that US Republicans do not obey that little rule.

    1. HuBo Silver badge
      Windows

      Re: "facts will always trump opinion"

      Very true for that portion of US Republicans who are high-on-crack zealot loudmouth basket cases ... unfortunately, they do tend to drown out the rest of the GOP discourse in a sea of crass nonsense. Their promotion of a dystopic future agenda of fundamentalist totalitarianism, to turn the US into (essentially) "a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves", is light-years away from the Party's origins of combatting the expansion of slavery into western territories (1854). What a mess!

      Ultimately, it might well be incumbent to those Republicans who haven't yet completely lost their marbles to wrestle that cursed beast of piledriving doom back into a less ridiculous incongruity imho (or ship them off to Mars!).

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: "facts will always trump opinion"

        "Ultimately, it might well be incumbent to those Republicans who haven't yet completely lost their marbles to wrestle that cursed beast of piledriving doom back into a less ridiculous incongruity imho (or ship them off to Mars!)."

        IIRC, VP Musk has offered to fund election campaigns for any loyalists prepared tun run against Republicans who don't tow the line.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: "facts will always trump opinion"

          >IIRC, VP Musk has offered to fund election campaigns for any loyalists prepared tun run against Republicans who don't tow the line.

          The interesting thing is going to be; when Trump inevitably tires of him - will he fund election campaigns for any Republicans who run against loyalists ?

          Of course that would require him to be a petty-minded petulant child and the Republicans be prepared to get into bed with him for short-term gain

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "facts will always trump opinion"

      Trump will always opinionate facts.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sadly, I could foresee the current internet issues arising YEARS ago...

    The simple fact is that many social media platforms allow completely anonymised identities to be used for any account you care to sign up to.

    And as such, *anyone* can post anything they like, whether it is fake news, fake videos, fake photos or their mum's recipe for Victoria Sponge cake. And each person who opens an account is NOT accountable(*) for anything they post online. And this allows people to spew any information they like, which can then be copied, shared or commented on by tens, hundreds, thousands of other irresponsible people hiding behind their own anonymised accounts.

    (*) And yes I know there are exceptions !

    And what's worse is that the free email account providers and the social media website LOVE all of this, as it helps increase their advertising revenue, while at the same substantially increasing their popularity as it drives other users onto *their* platforms to either like / dislike or comment on the clickbait that was originally posted. !!

    I'm not in favour of the idea of the "internet police" as they could so easily be corrupted or become sensors of legitimate content...but one has to wonder how 2025 (and future years) is going to evolve, if fact checking humans are dispensed with... :-(

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Sadly, I could foresee the current internet issues arising YEARS ago...

      I blame writing.

      When you had to go into the market and tell your story people would punch you if you told lies about Marduk

      Once you were able to anonymously publish lies about the quality of Ea-nāṣir's copper and there was no accountability the world went downhill

      1. STOP_FORTH Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Sadly, I could foresee the current internet issues arising YEARS ago...

        You're absolutely right. Reading the writing is where all the problems really started.

        Don't get me started on speaking.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Sadly, I could foresee the current internet issues arising YEARS ago...

          “Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.”

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sadly, I could foresee the current internet issues arising YEARS ago...

      oops !

      That should be "censors" and not "sensors" !!

      (Spotted it too late to edit the original :-( )

    3. Ahosewithnoname

      Re: Sadly, I could foresee the current internet issues arising YEARS ago...

      Complains the person posting as AC...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sadly, I could foresee the current internet issues arising YEARS ago...

        "Complains the person posting as AC..."

        Well spotted and hence this further proves my point !

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sadly, I could foresee the current internet issues arising YEARS ago...

      "many social media platforms allow completely anonymised identities"

      I think the term you're looking for is pseudonymous. Because you need an internet connection to get there and a usually a mobile phone to activate the account / use 2FA.

  12. chivo243 Silver badge
    Childcatcher

    Job interview

    I see you're from Florida? Yep. Know anything about VPNs? Yep.

    Perhaps they are thinking of the kids! And thinking of the STEM needs of their state. After all, porn drives development of the internet!

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Job interview

      If you are in Florida and are looking for a child to help you configure a VPN so you can access porn. Can I suggest you are very careful how you word the advert ?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "where facts will never get in the way of a good time"

    The author needs to wake up to the lies and psychologiocal warfare that has been waged against the people for the last 5 years, probably more. We have never been fed so many lies and most not from Trump. The evidence is all around you but not on MSM, Scientific papers and eminent whistleblowers. People who had been on the inside but became so appalled at what they were seeing. By denying and burying your head you bring disaster on all of us. I do not want a one world government or to be their cattle.

    1. Casca Silver badge

      And another moronic AC, or is the same?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "And another moronic AC, or is the same?"

        It certainly WASN'T me...as a) I'm not able to write moronic sentences and b) I'm not a moron :-)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Funnily enough - seems like Musk wants to become the world government. Sure, Trump can stay president of the little USA bit, and whoever he can replace Starmer with for the little UK bit, and some AfD guy for the little Germany bit ....

      1. Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch Silver badge

        Starmer's term of office isn't due to expire until after Trump leaves office forever (through whatever modality that might happen). If whoever replaces His Orangeness is prepared to let Musk persist in any appointed position of power, they're bonkers.

        1. MachDiamond Silver badge

          "prepared to let Musk persist in any appointed position of power"

          I question your assumption that Elon will be around for the full course. His role is advisory, not one that can enact any sort of action. What happens when he runs headfirst into that realization a few times? I expect him to take his ball and bat and go home. He's done that in the past, working with Mr Trump even. If he gets too full of himself, he'll spend a lot of time in front of congressional inquiry committees explaining his activities at the very least. Treading on too many toes may lead to more direct consequences.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      the irony of sheep repeating trumpets lies....

      hilarious

  14. glennsills@gmail.com

    Three competing wants.

    People want to: 1) Protect children from porn, 2) Allow adults to see porn if they wish, 3) Allow anonymous access to the internet. You cannot have all three things at one time. Many argue that anonymity of access and the right to adult porn is more important that protecting children. Southern US states are arguing that protecting children is the most important thing, so either anonymity of Internet access or access to porn must go.

    Personally, I'd be okay banning porn online. Adults could still access porn offline. so that "freedom of speech" would still be upheld. The strong identity needed keep children from accessing porn, while allowing adults to access porn would be a nightmare.

    1. imanidiot Silver badge
      Pirate

      Re: Three competing wants.

      There is no such thing as "banning porn online". Porn will happen. No matter the laws. Legally or illegally people are going to see genitalia. It's why the internet was born

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Transparent bullshit

      "The southern states want to protect children." Lol.

      The southern states that legislate a duty to check students' genitals to make sure they're in the right bathroom/sports team? The southern states, whose governors invest in covid cures while waging a public jihad against masking and vaccines?

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Transparent bullshit

        My cat wants to go outside but also wants it not to be raining

        I can only suggest the same solution to Southern States I apply to the cat

        take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure....

    3. MachDiamond Silver badge

      Re: Three competing wants.

      "Southern US states are arguing that protecting children is the most important thing, so either anonymity of Internet access or access to porn must go."

      The argument is put that government must protect children from porn. Shoot 'em Up video games are not a problem.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Three competing wants.

        >Shoot 'em Up video games are not a problem.

        Neither are Shoot 'em Up actual guns in schools

  15. Cliffwilliams44 Silver badge

    We cannot let facts get in the way of truth

    An article purportedly to be about facts that is so devoid of them!

    While age verification is an unworkable and dangerous idea and most likely will not survive constitutional review even in this conservative court, the author needs to take his TDS pills!

    Equating the new president as some kind of totalitarian while completely ignoring the last administrations authoritarian use of the state to squash free speech and prosecute it's enemies is the kind of twaddle that the US citizens voted against!

    The Register would do itself better to hire journalists who can report on facts and truth instead of this ideological bovine excrement!

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: We cannot let facts get in the way of truth

      But the new president can immediately pardon all the pickup truck drivers, heterosexuals, meat eaters and people who say Merry Christmas who were put in gulags by the evil genius weak senile previous president

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Government protection, lol

    Interesting your article didn't mention the part about the parents being too stupid, lazy, and pathetic to raise their children the 'right' way. (whatever that may be)

    Seems like the parents should be the ones protecting the children through education, age appropriate rules at home, as well as simply using blocks, security, and

    supervision for online activities.

    Parents of today are so fired up to shirk all their responsibilities off onto the government, like raising their children, that honestly they shouldn't have much of a right

    to be surprised or upset when things like this come along. Especially things that say their doing it to 'protect the children'.

    But what do I know....

    I never had kids.

    I just notice that these 'parents' that are coming up with rules against porn, registration lists, and massive information grabs

    are also the same parents that created the porn and mess in the first place.

    1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

      Re: Government protection, lol

      My kids were mostly grown up when social media, internet porn et. al. made the big time.

      Bringing up kids when porn was on paper, and the only people you had to worry about influencing them the wrong way were physically present in the locality made it possible to be reasonably certain that they were safe. Even then, there were dangers, but you could educate them about avoiding risks, or even physically restrict what they could do, within reason.

      But even in that long-gone world, children were still abused, groomed, and influenced, kidnapped and sometimes even turned against their parents and friends.

      I really don't know how modern parents cope. It is not surprising that some who care, but who don't have the skills, knowledge and/or access to technology want to make it 'someone else's problem", which is all that trying to devolve parental responsibility to platforms, schools, councils or the government is. They don't really have any other avenue. But, the organizations they are hoping will do this don't really know how, either.

      And, as always, there are too many parents who take the "I can't be bothered, it'll probably come out all right even if I do nothing" path until something happens, whereupon they take to the media shouting about why "somebody" didn't protect their children, and who is going to do something about it!

      We can't go backwards, we can't regulate without infringing on someone else's rights. We definitely should not let capitalistic big business take charge. Whatever happened to the idea of altruistic socialism (if that was ever anything more than an idealist's pipe-dream).

      Society is doomed, I say.

  17. Conrad Longmore

    Banning porn..

    Banning porn ain't gonna work, in the same way that Prohibition of alcohol didn't work. People will find ways around it, some dicier than others. Then of course one or more of the anti-porn legislators will have a laptop full of really bad stuff..

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Banning porn..

      But just like prohibition, it will offer great opportunities for new entrepreneurial businessmen to come to the fore

  18. Coypu76

    Clutching your pearls so tightly you're white-knuckled, there, pal.

    No states have banned porn. A group of states have instituted requirements that porn be available only to adults.

    It is Pornhub themselves who are blocking connections from those states rather than add ID verification to their website.

    You got that cart completely before the horse.

    And SCOTUS is unlikely to declare requiring verification of adulthood to porn users a violation of Free speech.

    That addresses your first three paragraphs. You begin your fourth paragraph with this false statement: "All these are mere facts, though"

    Nope. What you wrote is verifiably false.

    You're exercised over Mark Zuckerberg's defection from fact-free fact checking. I'm not fond of the current iteration of AI results on search engines and social media. I've seen plenty of factually false statements made by the large language model programs. The stuff they post is linguistically licit, but AI is clearly designed to generate results, not to verify sources or facts. I find it interesting and a little annoying, but you are obviously exercised that your echo chamber is being threatened.

    I didn't vote for Trump or Kamala in the election by way of disclaimer, but your white-knuckled fury that the US is slouching toward Hitler is just more emoting, as is the rest of your pearl-clutching, pal.

    Fortunately there are plenty of bit-herders in various tech fields who are more level headed than you are.

    I'm having a little problem characterizing you, but your evident confidence in your own superiority and your insufferable sanctimoniousness inclines me to think your ship lists at least a couple of standard deviations to the port side of the political bell curve.

    My advice to you is have a cup of decaf and lay off the energy drinks before you lay your hands on the keyboard.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      >but your white-knuckled fury that the US is slouching toward Hitler is just more emoting

      Chill bro. He's only going to be a dictator on day one. Then he's going to deport 11 million illegals, all the legal Haitians, denaturalize any bad citizens and invade Canada - you know just normal US government stuff.

      1. seldom

        Business as usual

    2. MachDiamond Silver badge

      "It is Pornhub themselves who are blocking connections from those states rather than add ID verification to their website."

      They may consider the ID checking requirements to be more risk than they'd like to have to manage. Not only do they have to keep the data secure, it may also mean a lot of people working hard to get access to it.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        IIRC the law required them to confirm the age of customer without them uploading any government documentation.

        And without the law defining what would be an acceptable form of age confirmation

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sex tapes

    While there might be a lot of free speech in our home made sex tapes, they are one thing I hope Zuck & co. don't fact check.

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