Pornhub and YouPorn, the biggest adult websites in the world, have been blocked in Russia. And things have become very odd.
The site has been blocked by the Russian state watchdog Roskomnadzor, which is known in English as the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media. Among other things, that agency is in charge of monitoring the internet and blocking sites that the government doesn’t want to be used.
And the latest sites to fall victim of that are Pornhub and YouPorn. That move began on Tuesday but put in practice previously issued court decisions, according to the Moscow Times, and could be reviewed later.
Pornhub, which says it is the world’s number one free pornography site, responded with a cheeky tweet to the Roskomnadzor watchdog, offering it premium subscription in return for lifting the ban.
“If we give you guys a Pornhub Premium account, will you un ban Pornhub in Russia?” the site wrote.
“Sorry, we are not in the market, and the demography is not a commodity,” the agency snapped back in English on its official Twitter, suggesting pornography is preventing the population from reproducing.
While the prohibition has been roundly panned, some advocates believe the move is a positive action to defend family values and the safety of children from a wildly unregulated Internet porn landscape.
Last year, Roskomnadzor responded to one critic by telling them, “as an alternative you could try and meet someone in real life.” Thursday, the watchdog said that advice is “still relevant.”
Roskomnadzor said the ban could be lifted only after a total revamp of the sites, one news agency reported.
In recent years, the Russian government has issued temporary bans on various adult Internet sites.
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