

In recent weeks, ECP has lobbied Apple, Google and Microsoft to jointly develop a technological standard that might turn a user’s electronic device into the proof of age necessary to access restricted online content, according to Solomon Friedman, a partner at ECP. The video’s release coincides with a previously unreported effort by Pornhub - and its private equity owners, Ethical Capital Partners (ECP) - to convince the world’s largest tech companies to intervene in the wider debate over age restrictions for digital porn and social media. A company spokesperson told CNN it’s “certainly not our goal” to shut down the site in the three states as it did in Utah but hinted at the possibility, saying that “if necessary, we will share next steps in the coming weeks.”īut the video campaign is only part of a broader unfolding strategy by one of the internet’s highest-profile distributors of adult material.

It’s unclear how much Pornhub expects to achieve, as the laws have already been passed and signed. Now, as similar legislation is set to take effect next month in Arkansas, Mississippi and Virginia, Pornhub is making a last-ditch effort to galvanize users there in opposition. The call-to-action video, launching Wednesday in multiple states, comes from Pornhub, which last month withdrew from Utah over a new law that requires adult sites to verify their users’ ages and holds them liable for serving their content to minors. “Click the button below to contact your representatives before it is too late,” Deville pleads.

In the two-minute video, adult performer Cherie Deville stares into the camera and intones soberly to viewers, for the second time in a month, that policymakers are coming for their porn.
