MONTREAL/TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Starting Jan. 1, 2025, Aylo will geo-block IP addresses based in the state of Florida from accessing Pornhub.com and the company’s other websites due to an age verification law entering force that targets explicitly adult websites.
Florida will be the second-most populous U.S. state to be geo-blocked by Aylo due to age verification laws. Texas is the most populous state where users are blocked. The Florida law is House Bill (HB) 3. Other key states have also adopted potentially unconstitutional age-gating measures.
A spokesperson for Aylo confirmed the specter of the upcoming geo-block in an email. The spokesperson told AVN, “Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous.
“Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy,” the spokesperson added.
A similar statement was sent to journalists at Florida Politics, who also reported that Aylo would geo-block the state’s digital space starting in the new year.
News of the block comes a day after the adult entertainment industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition announced a new lawsuit challenging House Bill 3.
Along with online sex education platform O.school, fan platform JustFor.fans, and pleasure products retailer Adam & Eve, FSC challenges HB 3 on grounds that it violates the First Amendment rights of users and professionals working in this space.
“This law and others like it have effectively become state censorship, creating a massive chilling effect for those who speak about, or engage with, issues of sex or sexuality,” explained Alison Boden, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, in a Dec. 16 press release announcing the lawsuit.
Miami-based attorney Barry Chase is also named as a plaintiff alongside FSC and the companies. The case is Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Moody.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, a Republican, was sued on behalf of the state. The plaintiffs are represented by Larry Walters of Walters Law Group, based in Longwood, Fla.; Gary Edinger of Benjamin, Aaronson, Edinger & Patanzo PA of Gainesville, Fla.; Jeffrey Sandman of the New Orleans, La., office of Webb Daniel Friedlander LLP; and D. Gill Sperlein of San Francisco, Calif.
Aylo has also partied in a Texas case challenging age verification that is currently pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. Aylo, the Free Speech Coalition, and other parent firms of some of the most popular adult websites in the world sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the state to block House Bill 1181.
Oral arguments in the Supreme Court case are scheduled for January 15, 2025.
Attorney Walters filed an amicus brief in support of the Free Speech Coalition at the Supreme Court along with Corey Silverstein and attorneys for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Silverstein and Walters represented the Woodhull Freedom Foundation and EFF in the amicus filing.
Attorney General Moody signed an amicus brief supporting Paxton and Texas. That brief includes Moody and 23 predominantly Republican state attorneys general.
