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Russians Now Need a Passport To Watch Pornhub (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VICE News: Pornhub, the world's biggest porn site, now requires users in Russia to log in using social media accounts linked to their passports and cell phones. Monday's change is the latest chapter of an ongoing feud between Pornhub and the Russian government. The site was blocked in Russia last September for allegedly spreading information detrimental to the development of children, then reinstated in April after instituting a requirement that users specify their age. At the time, Pornhub asked the Russian state media regulation agency whether officials there would lift the ban if they were given free Pornhub Premium accounts. Pornhub announced the change on its own Vkontakte page page by saying "now you can simply log in through your favorite social network" instead of filling in your date of birth. But the government policy that Pornhub says prompted the change presumably wasn't aimed at making it easier for Russians to watch porn. Instead, it may be a means of surveillance; to open a Vkontakte account, users need to enter their cell phone numbers. And to legally purchase a SIM card in Russia, you need to disclose your passport information. "While this exact method is not a condition [from the Russian government], we found this is the best solution for our users to comply with Russian access laws," Pornhub Vice President Corey Price said. "Also to be clear, Pornhub does not log or store any of your personal information, this is just a check to see if users are over 18. On [Vkontakte's] end, all they will see is see the request from that user, they will not know what that user browsed on Pornhub."
I have no idea who is being the bigger asshole here. But if any porn site can take on a government and win, its Pornhub.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
This should be expanded to all web sites. Anything to protect our children.
"Vlad does Crimea" - HD short about a balding, bisexual failed hockey player who goes around Sevastopol looking for anal 3-ways
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
In Soviet Russia, porn watches YOU!
Sounds like a way for them to track and hunt and the LGBT community.
I'll admit my sample size is small, but it seems like a lot of the stuff on pornhub stars Russian citizens. I'm gonna guess second only to Americans.
/ sample size, not unit size
... that explains the big upsurge in XHamster wikipedia hits lately.
MY BALLS!!! Suck 'em, Rooskies!
p0rn watches you.
"On [Vkontakte's] end, all they will see is see the request from that user, they will not know what that user browsed on Pornhub."
One can safely presume that what they browsed was porn, da?
At the time, Pornhub asked the Russian state media regulation agency whether officials there would lift the ban if they were given free Pornhub Premium accounts.
Just...
Bravo.
Just checked the vk.com site. It is true that you have to give them a mobile phone number for them to complete the signup process (They send an SMS to confirm the number). Isn't it possible to use a virtual SMS number to defeat this? Just googling "online phone number to receive SMS" game me a whole lot of free sites that provide such a service, free.
The future of Trump's presidency is?!?.......
The poster has used a series of reaches to get there.
All the Russian govt has asked is verify age>18 which even the US govt asks.
The way US sites do it is ask for a credit card. To get a credit card in the US you have to reveal your Social Security Number so the headline could just as well have been US govt asks Pornhub to provide Social Security numbers of those who access Pornhub.
**Life is too short to be serious**
Jesus christ.
It's 2017. Can we please get over this negative attitude towards sex?
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
for thousands of years sex was incredibly risky. Most women died in child birth at some point. STDs were even less well understood. Then there's the high cost of raising children. And that's before we get into a discussion of the various forms of rape.
Men still don't have effective contraception (condoms break) and women's contraception has their own troubles. We'll a long way off from curing known STDs (and we're still discovering new ones). I suppose we've more or less solved women dying in child birth though.
We're a long way off from solving all the problems related to sex or even minimizing them. So no, we probably aren't going to do anything about negative attitudes towards sex in our lifetimes.
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If Russians have to use their passports to watch people get screwed they might as well just go to Ukraine.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
if they could Democrats would do the same thing here
Given Putin's war on everything, this translates to "gay porn": But I'm guessing there' plenty of women receiving anal sex on PornHub, which doesn't seem to endanger the children who aren't meant to be watching it.
The Russian government is keen on censorship, and even more on showing the people they are 'protected.' There are also some ethical concerns in aiding such a repressive government in gathering information on its citizens that could be used against them.
So here's a better idea for Pornhub: Open up a Tor hidden service.
...Pornhub Vice President Corey Price ...
It figures a company that deals in porn would have a president of vice.
The only thing did Pornhub - they require authentication by social network. Thats truth.
Requiring passport is manipulation of facts and lies at the end. How it is called, fake news? Is slashdot turned to fake news?
Here is why:
Social network need telephone number, mostly against spam, but not specifically russian telephone number. There is many neighbouring countries who sell SIM cards without passport.
Plus, in Russia there is black market in any metro station entrance and you can buy telephone number without any passport.
The only who will have problems to obtain such sim cards - very young children.
But still, they use their own number parents give to them, register another account (it's allowed), and just specify adult birthday date in social network, and free to go to access adult website.
I haven't been back to Russia since 2012, but I remember buying a SIM card from an airport kiosk with cash and without having to show anyone my passport. It was a Beeline SIM card, and when I first bought it I had an iPhone 3G so I wasn't able to use it until a year later when I bought a Nexus One. On my next business trip, I installed the Beeline SIM card and it worked without any issues and without having to register my passport or anything.
Is this a recent (within the past 5 years) regulation?
It's got nothing to do with this guy:
Documentary by the Opposition Leader Taken off of Youtube
Just use a VPN, kids. Brainwash your parents and get one. Or use a free VPN/proxy. Or use torrents.
"Monday's change is the latest chapter of an ongoing feud between Pornhub and the Russian government. The site was blocked in Russia last September for allegedly spreading information detrimental to the development of children"
Since typically no contraceptives are used in such clips, I have to say I can't see their objection.
If anything, Pornhub is spreading information that's totally in favour of the development of children, especially in getting it started...
aRTee