A federal judge agreed with porn industry claims that a Texas law to protect minors from viewing online pornography likely violates the First Amendment.
U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra granted a request by Pornhub and others to temporarily stop the state from enforcing its new age-verification requirement while a challenge to the law is litigated.
Pornhub, the largest online platform for sharing sex videos, sued Texas last month along with other pro-porn plaintiffs to keep House Bill 1181 from taking effect on September 1.
HB 1181 requires commercial porn websites to use “reasonable” methods to verify that users are at least 18 years of age before they access X-rated content online. Violators face hefty fines.
Ezra said the law would chill constitutionally protected speech and granted Pornhub’s request for a preliminary injunction.
Texas immediately filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and also filed a motion with the district court to stay the preliminary injunction.
“With a flip of a switch, Plaintiffs could implement this technology today to prevent minors from viewing pornography,” the state said, noting that Pornhub and other plaintiffs currently use age verification technology in other jurisdictions.
Ezra denied the state’s stay request.
He said the law is overbroad, overly restrictive, and under-inclusive.
Because H.B. 1181 runs afoul of 20-year-old precedent affirming that age verification is not narrowly tailored against content filtering, the status quo is kept by enjoining its enforcement pending further review… a preliminary injunction against unconstitutional internet restrictions both maintains the status quo and prevents Plaintiffs from suffering irreparable injury.
Several states have adopted age verification laws to keep minors from viewing adult content online, but Texas is the first state sued by Pornhub over its law. Additional plaintiffs include other third-party porn platforms, several adult content creators, and the porn industry trade association Free Speech Coalition.
After Louisiana adopted an age verification law that became a model for other states, Pornhub reported traffic from Louisiana dropped by 80 percent.
The Free Speech Coalition says privacy concerns have driven more than 90 percent of porn consumers to abandon adult content sites that comply with age verification laws.
Pornhub is the target of multiple lawsuits accusing the company of profiting from uploaded videos of child sexual abuse featuring victims as young as three years old.
Pornography is a multibillion-dollar global industry.
