Thursday, May 12, 2016

Porn Site Geo-Blocks N.C. over Bathroom Bill

At Huffpost Queer Voices (their phrase, not mine) reporter David Moye is of two minds regarding the porn website, XHamster.

According to Moye, the porn site's spokesman, (shown in photo) Mike Kulich announced that any Internet user showing a North Carolina IP address will no longer be allowed to access the the site. XHamster has reportedly taken this step in response to North Carolina's House Bill 2 - AKA the Bathroom Bill.

Kulich was quoted as saying, "I think that porn has the power to do what Bruce Springsteen can’t".

I'm not quite sure how this can be effective. The State of North Carolina doesn't receive revenue from hits at the porn site. It won't hurt the State's pocket book. Besides, there are probably quite a few North Carolinians who would be happy about the boycott. They would see the connection between guys wanting to use women's restrooms and porn as bedfellows of a feather, to coin a phrase.

It's more likely, however, to increase the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) in North Carolina. It's not that difficult to access a website that has geoblocked an IP address.

As happy as David Moye appears to be at XHamster's boycott of North Carolina, he is equally unhappy at what he sees as the porn site's public support for Donald Trump. Moye views Trump's statement, that he would consider appointing judges who would overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s same sex so-called "marriage" ruling, as contradicting "XHamster’s self-proclaimed, pro-equality ethos".

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