The War on Porn Regular Updates about the Assault on The Adult Industry
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PARIS — French billionaire Xavier Niel, founder of telecommunications giant Iliad S.A., sparked a heated debate this week after appearing to suggest that the no-cost VPN his Free Mobile wireless carrier has integrated into its service was deliberately designed to circumvent age verification restrictions and allow customers to access adult content.
The company introduced the feature on Tuesday. Called Free mVPN, it is automatically bundled with several of the carrier’s subscription tiers and is described as the first consumer VPN ever built directly into a mobile operator’s core network.
Niel, often described as “the Richard Branson of France” and known for his unconventional career, presented the launch as a gift to his countrymen.
“A VPN should not be a luxury reserved for a select few,” he said in a statement. “Once again, Free is giving purchasing power back to the French people.”
The debut came as France continues a lengthy legal battle over age verification rules. The Law Aiming to Secure and Regulate the Digital Space, first proposed in 2022 and passed in late 2023, has been challenged repeatedly. Critics argued it unfairly targeted adult sites, and one senator even acknowledged it was meant more to “complicat[e] the life of publishers of porn sites” than to improve online safety.
Since its passage, French courts and regulators have clashed over whether the law applies to foreign-based websites. It was suspended for non-French E.U. sites in June, reinstated in July, and then used in August by media regulator Arcomagainst five foreign platforms. Two of those sites appealed to France’s highest court.
On Wednesday, Maciej Szpunar, Advocate General of the E.U. Court of Justice, issued a requested non-binding opinion advising that France may require adult websites based in other E.U. countries to implement age verification in line with French law.
Whether by design or coincidence, Free Mobile’s timing is notable. Should popular adult websites opt to block French visitors, as Pornhub has already done, the carrier’s built-in VPN gives customers a ready workaround. VPN use in France has already risen sharply since age checks were implemented, suggesting a strong market demand.
That point was highlighted by one French tech site, which commented Tuesday on X.com:
“Free Mobile includes a free VPN, which incidentally allows users to bypass anti-pornography blocking.”
