Inside the porn industry’s revolt against tech rules
Published:
An article about porn industry's gripes with age-verification laws in Europe, by Politico.
Politicians try as hard as they can to fight people's right to privacy and secrecy, this is nothing new. Having secrets is a form of power, and governments can't stand a world in which there is power in the hands of regular people. We have seen this time, and time again.
Of course, porn industry's primary concern is its profits. The performers and companies rightly say that the moralistic crusade disguised in "think of the children" is just a smokescreen; I seriously doubt that any politician really cares or thinks of the frequently mentioned children. This framing, however, is incredibly potent: it shows innocents (the children) besieged by a great evil (online pornography), and presents a wonderful solution to the problem (a continent-wide panopticon).
The measures are "really just about control. It’s not actually about porn, but porn is a very good scapegoat," said Christina Castalia, a digital showgirl with a bachelor’s degree in law. "I see it [age verification regulations] more so as an attack to, literally, the entire society." It’s not "just about porn. It’s about mass surveillance and it’s about control," she said.
I do not know who Ms Castalia is, but I wholeheartedly agree. Both age verification and chat control are purely about control of the people, nothing less, nothing more.
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