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Russians Now Need a Passport To Watch Pornhub (vice.com) 89

Posted by BeauHD from the jump-through-hoops dept.
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."
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Russians Now Need a Passport To Watch Pornhub More

Russians Now Need a Passport To Watch Pornhub

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  • 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.

  • Premium content just for Russians (Score:3, Insightful)

    by haruchai ( 17472 ) on Monday July 10, 2017 @08:22PM (#54782345)

    "Vlad does Crimea" - HD short about a balding, bisexual failed hockey player who goes around Sevastopol looking for anal 3-ways

  • In America, you watch porn. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    In Soviet Russia, porn watches YOU!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ghoul ( 157158 )

      Given that communism in Russia fell 26 years ago you were probably not even a gleam in your daddy's eye when Russia was Soviet. Find a new meme. Maybe in Killary's America.......

  • Hunting Season (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Sounds like a way for them to track and hunt and the LGBT community.

    • Or you could read the TFS and see that PornHub doesn't send any information about what the user viewed.

      Let me help you -

      "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."

  • So, how about Russians on pornhub (Score:3)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Monday July 10, 2017 @08:33PM (#54782391)
    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

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by lucm ( 889690 )

      I'll admit my sample size is small

      You have to pace yourself. Think of it as a marathon, not a sprint, and it should help with your sample size.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by yobjob ( 942868 )
      Russians are the largest Slavic group but they are outnumbered by the rest of the combined Slavic nationalities. But to a western audience it's easier to call them all Russians. It's porno not geography class.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        Russians are the largest Slavic group but they are outnumbered by the rest of the combined Slavic nationalities. But to a western audience it's easier to call them all Russians. It's porno not geography class.

        Further more, how do you tell someone is Russian just by looking at them. A lot of English women can easily be made up to look Slavic despite being quite Anglo. Even with languages, unless you're familiar with the languages you probably wont be able to tell spoken Russian from Greek at normal speaking pace, let alone Russian from Latvian.

        Besides, I would have thought after American produced porn, the Japanese had the next biggest slice of the market.

  • Well then... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ... that explains the big upsurge in XHamster wikipedia hits lately.

  • "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?

  • Clap Clap Clap (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    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.

  • virtual number? (Score:3)

    by ch0knuti ( 994541 ) on Monday July 10, 2017 @08:44PM (#54782457)

    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.

    • Don't know about Russia.

      Here is the USSA, almost all sites that require a phone number for identify verification block VOIP and other free services. 'Cuz if they allowed that it wouldn't be any good for tying internet logs to a specific citizen. And that would make the Gestapo very unhappy. Tyranny hates and fears anonymity.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Probably not (Score:3, Informative)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 )
      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

      • Re:Probably not (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @06:11AM (#54784581) Homepage

        Oh please, we have playboys and prostitutes that have had sex with hundreds if not thousands of sex partners so pregnancies and STDs is pretty much solved except for drunken unprotected sex and religious hang-ups that prevent abortion. Pretty much the only unsolved problem is supply/demand, which is what leads to commercialized/weaponized sex. If both sides felt they could get their sex needs solved with toys and the dating scene became about finding love/relationships and not about scoring/hoarding access to sex organs we'd see the negativity go away. Until then there'll still be all sorts of problems as men want sex and choose to get it in foul ways as well as women using sex as a tool for power/money. And then there's some very fucked up honor systems with different rules for men and women, but that's a much bigger social/civil rights issue.

        • And then there's some very fucked up honor systems with different rules for men and women, but that's a much bigger social/civil rights issue

          Biologic issue--

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        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.

        Christ, how did the human race ever not die out if most women died in child birth.

        Sounds like you need an education in history. Back in the Roman and Greek days, sex was free and easy. Prostitution was rife, gay sex between men wasn't given a second thought. At several points the Pharaohs of Egypt ordered wives to be naked at all times whilst at home to increase the birth rate. The modern hangups on sex occurred when Abrahamic religions took hold. Sex is an incredibly powerful motivator and the churches

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by dddux ( 3656447 )
        Well, using Pornhub is a really good way to avoid all these problems with unwanted kids and STDs. Isn't it? It is also a good way to give men who can't, for some reason, be in a stable relationship, have an outlet, so they don't get tempted to harass women and god forbid - rape them. IMHO

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      It is still the same 0.1 "Caveman" model that far too many humans follow. No enlightenment to be had there.

      • Belief that humans are, generally speaking enlightened, is sheer hubris. I suspect we will always retain our base instincts, prejudices, and predisposition for violence. We kinda suck.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          Indeed. Or put another way: Most humans understand nothing, including their own personality. Add that most humans do not really benefit from education either (they ignore anything they do not like, for example history and inconvenient hard scientific facts), and as a group, humans are complete losers. However, there is a persistent observation that in almost any group that was thrown together with some randomization, about 10-15% do not suck and do actually understand things and are capable of independent t

  • If Russians have to use their passports to watch people get screwed they might as well just go to Ukraine [wikipedia.org].

  • 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 wi

    • Sightly misleading headline, perhaps, but not fake news. From TFS:

      [...] 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.

      PornHub is recommending what they believe to be the easiest method to access their site legally. Yeah there's a black market for phone numbers but that just means you are breaking a different law. A better headline might be: "Russians May Need Passport to Legally Access PornHub".

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