Searches for virtual private networking (VPN) software briefly spiked in Texas this week after Pornhub suspended service in the state over a law forcing adult websites to verify the age or identities of their users.
Searches for virtual private networking (VPN) software briefly spiked in Texas this week after Pornhub suspended service in the state over a law forcing adult websites to verify the age or identities of their users.
The four-fold rise in Google searches for tools that can circumvent the state-level blocking suggests the law may already be having unintended side effects, days after a federal appeals court upheld the legislation and said it could remain in effect.
Visitors with Texas IP addresses who visit Pornhub’s website are now presented with a full-page message calling the Texas law “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous.”
“Until the real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Texas,” the message reads. “In doing so, we are complying with the law, as we always do, but hope that governments around the world will implement laws that actually protect the safety and security of users.”
Search interest in VPNs began disproportionately rising in Texas Thursday compared to the rest of the country, according to a CNN analysis of Google Trends data — quadrupling in the hours following Pornhub’s announcement before retreating slightly by early Friday morning.
While Google Trends merely shows correlations between events and is only useful as a gauge of relative search interest for a given snapshot of time, the immediacy of the search spike, coupled with its concentration from within Texas, highlights the potential connection between the law and Pornhub’s users.
A link “seems pretty likely,” said Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future, a digital rights advocacy group.
“The apparent spike in VPN searches in Texas shows that these types of age verification laws aren’t just unconstitutional, they’re also silly and ineffective,” Greer said.
