Legal Attacks

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge has dismissed several trafficking-related claims filed against Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, and credit card processor Visa, according to court orders issued Monday.

The case was brought by Serena Fleites, whose story was highlighted in Nicholas Kristof’s widely discussed New York Times opinion column “The Children of Pornhub.” In the piece, Kristof portrayed Fleites as emblematic of claims that the platform enabled illegal content, including child sexual abuse material. Fleites later disclosed that she had been victimized as a teenager and filed suit against Aylo and Visa.

The lawsuit is being heard by U.S. District Judge Wesley L. Hsu of the Central District of California. Fleites is represented by attorneys Michael Bowe and Lauren Tabaksblat of Brithem LLP, along with David Stein of Olson Sten LLP. Bowe, who previously defended former U.S. President Donald Trump and appeared in Netflix’s Money Shot: The Pornhub Story, co-founded Brithem LLP earlier this year as a boutique firm specializing in what it calls “impact litigation.”

Judge Hsu ruled that many of Fleites’ claims against Visa could not proceed. Her attorneys had sought to hold Visa liable for processing payments connected to Aylo’s platforms, then operating under the name MindGeek. However, Hsu dismissed most of these claims, finding insufficient evidence of active participation in trafficking-related conduct.

“Civil conspiracy with Aylo cannot be triggered solely by knowledge and inertia; it requires affirmative alignment with the venture’s unlawful purpose,” Hsu wrote. He added that there were “no allegations of internal Visa communications, decision-making, or admissions reflecting an understanding of MindGeek’s unlawful objectives,” noting instead that Visa appeared to have simply “continued a pre-existing business relationship in the face of controversy.”

While most claims against Visa were dismissed without prejudice, Hsu allowed parts of Fleites’ case against Aylo to continue. These include allegations tied to the Communications Decency Act and claims related to Aylo’s alleged role in the receipt, distribution, or transportation of exploitative material.

“While the court agrees that plaintiff’s pleadings as to MindGeek’s involvement in the videos as specific to her leave more to be desired,” Hsu wrote, “the court finds that these allegations paired with the general allegations found in the rest of the complaint … are sufficient at this stage of the litigation when all reasonable inferences are drawn in favor of the plaintiff.”

Hsu also dismissed claims that Aylo violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA)through direct liability, but he allowed Fleites’ beneficiary liability claim to move forward. That provision of the law allows plaintiffs to pursue damages against entities that knowingly benefited from participation in a trafficking venture.

In addition, Hsu dismissed allegations of conspiracy between Visa and Aylo to violate the TVPRA.

A spokesperson for Aylo declined to comment beyond a short statement: “Out of respect for the integrity of court proceedings, our policy is not to comment on ongoing litigation. We look forward to the facts being fully and fairly aired in that forum.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The state of Ohio will begin enforcing age verification regulations for adult entertainment content on September 30. In response, popular content platforms among adult content creators are either implementing age verification or withdrawing entirely from the state’s digital space in an effort to comply with the new law.

The parent company of Pornhub, Aylo, confirmed to The War on Porn that it will expand its geo-blocking protocol to cover Ohio as a protest against the state’s law, specifically targeting adult entertainment content.

A spokesperson for Aylo explained that Ohio is now the latest state with restricted access to its network of platforms, which also includes premium membership websites.

“Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information are putting user safety in jeopardy,” the spokesperson said. “Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws.

“The best solution to make the internet safer, preserve user privacy, and prevent children from accessing adult content is performing age verification at the source: on the device. The technology to accomplish this exists today.”

Meanwhile, Bluesky has begun implementing age verification measures on its platform for all users based in Ohio, according to TechCrunch.

“In Ohio, starting on Monday, 9/29, we’ll be implementing an age assurance solution similar to what we’re doing in South Dakota and Wyoming,” Bluesky posted.

“We recognize that promoting safety for young people is a shared responsibility, and we support the idea of collective action to protect children from online risks,” the company added. “We also recognize that governments may have strong, often conflicting, views on these issues and how to weigh competing priorities.”

The age verification mandate was attached to the appropriations bill, House Bill (HB) 96, signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine on July 2, 2025.

DeWine stated, “This budget builds upon my commitment to make Ohio the best place for everyone to live their version of the American Dream. … It prioritizes our children, empowers our workforce, and strengthens our communities.”

The War on Porn reported on HB 96 earlier this year, when amendments allowed the addition of a rider bill for age verification.

The bill’s language requires “reasonable age verification methods” that rely on government-issued identification cards, transactional data, and other means.

The provisions were tucked into the 3,156-page omnibus spending bill funding Ohio’s government for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Companies in the adult entertainment industry, through the vendors they must contract, will be required to verify the same users every two years thereafter.

PARIS — Martin Ajdari, president of French digital regulator Arcom, announced on Thursday that the agency will ramp up enforcement of age verification requirements under France’s SREN law. The remarks were delivered during a public event titled “Minors Online: What Risks, What Protections?”

Addressing regulators, members of Parliament, and industry leaders, Ajdari said Arcom will broaden its focus to include smaller adult platforms, with stricter enforcement measures potentially beginning in the coming months.

He also presented findings from a study commissioned by the regulator to “enable us to refine and strengthen our strategy, in a changing context marked by two events.”

“Between now and the end of 2025, we will be opening a dialogue with these platforms and inviting them to present us with their plans to comply with the measures I have just outlined,” Ajdari explained. He added that in early 2026, Arcom intends to question representatives from “major platforms” and begin “phase II of age verification checks on users of pornographic sites.”

“In this way, we are rolling out a new ambition, both in France and at [the] European level,” he told attendees.

Ajdari stressed that the regulator’s progress to date should motivate further action in cooperation with the French government, Parliament, and the European Commission. “We also need to think about how to adapt our law to technological developments and circumvention strategies,” he said.

By highlighting “circumvention strategies,” Ajdari signaled that Arcom is likely to address flaws in age verification rules, such as how blocks can be easily bypassed through virtual private networks (VPNs) or proxies.

France continues to face disputes with major adult platforms over the scope of the SREN law, particularly regarding enforcement against companies operating outside French borders. One ongoing case involves the parent companies of tube sites XVideos and XNXX, currently before the European Court of Justice. In a recent non-binding opinion, the Advocate General stated that France could apply the SREN law across national borders within the EU, provided the European Commission gives its approval.

ATLANTA — The U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the city of Chamblee, Georgia, upholding a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the parent company of a now-closed strip club.

Follies, once a prominent club in Chamblee, had challenged local ordinances that prohibited adult entertainment venues from serving alcohol and featuring fully nude dancers. The club’s owners argued that these restrictions violated their First Amendment rights and waged a years-long legal battle against the city.

In 2020, after a federal judge dismissed one of its cases, the club permanently closed. That ruling was later appealed to the Eleventh Circuit, which this week affirmed the lower court’s decision.

“On appeal, Follies argues that the district court erred in granting summary judgment on its free speech claims,” the appellate ruling stated. The judges noted that the club had urged the courts to apply a strict scrutiny standard to the ordinances, contending they imposed unconstitutional limits on free expression.

The court disagreed, finding that the city had demonstrated “a substantial government interest in decreasing property crime, prostitution, sexual assault, and violence around the adult establishment in its community while still permitting alternative channels of communication, mainly semi-nude erotic dancing.”

By applying a lower level of judicial scrutiny, the panel upheld the ordinances as constitutional.

Follies initially appealed the case in August 2021. At present, there is no indication of any appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rep. Josh Schriver introduced House Bill (HB) 4938, titled the “Anticorruption of Public Morals Act,” earlier this month. He promoted the measure as a “public decency and public safety solution” aimed at restricting what he described as harmful online speech.

Following widespread pushback and viral attention, Schriver announced on Sept. 24 via the social platform X that he would amend the bill to remove provisions targeting virtual private networks (VPNs) and other “circumvention tools” included in the original draft.

“I will not be advancing … [the act] … as is,” Schriver posted. “I am drafting a new version that removes all language regarding VPNs and non-pornographic imagery to ensure this policy only addresses pornography.”

The initial version of HB 4938 explicitly banned the use of circumvention methods such as VPNs and encryption tunneling, effectively criminalizing common privacy and security tools.

Schriver also signaled plans to revise the bill’s definition of “prohibited materials.” The original text broadly applied to any media with sexual themes, even if not pornographic. His proposed changes would narrow that definition, though the final scope remains unclear.

Another unresolved question is whether Schriver will alter language critics have described as discriminatory. The original draft defined prohibited material to include content depicting “a disconnection between biology and gender by an individual of one biological sex imitating, depicting, or representing himself or herself to be of the other biological sex.”

Corey Silverstein, a Michigan-based attorney who specializes in First Amendment cases involving the adult industry, criticized the measure, calling it “outrageous” and arguing that it “has essentially no chance of survival” in the state legislature.

PARIS — The president of French media regulator Arcom announced on Thursday that the agency will expand its enforcement of age verification rules to cover smaller adult sites, beginning in late 2025 or early 2026.

Since launching enforcement under France’s Security and Regulation of the Digital Space (SREN) law, Arcom has focused on major high-traffic platforms such as Pornhub, YouPorn, xHamster, XVideos, XNXX, xHamsterLive and TNAFlix.

Between the end of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, however, the regulator will initiate the next stage of its efforts, targeting sites “a little less frequented” than its initial list, Arcom President Martin Ajdari revealed during a public event titled “Minors Online: What Risks, What Protections?”

Arcom will “methodically apply the same procedure” to these smaller sites, Ajdari explained, investigating compliance with age verification rules, issuing formal notices, and ultimately blocking or delisting noncompliant platforms if needed.

“Arcom’s mission is not to intervene on the content itself but to ensure that platforms established in France respect their obligations,” he said. “Today, all the targeted sites have either been blocked (one of them), or have decided to shut down their service in France (this is the case for Pornhub and YouPorn), or have complied.

“In just a few months, we have changed the situation, without of course claiming to have solved everything,” he added.

Ajdari also emphasized that the regulator has continued its work despite “numerous legal proceedings.”

Earlier this year, Cyprus-based Hammy Media, operator of xHamster, challenged the application of France’s age verification rules to companies based elsewhere in the EU. The Paris Administrative Court temporarily suspended enforcement, but the French government appealed to the Council of State, which rejected the company’s arguments.

On Sept. 18, in a separate case involving WebGroup Czech Republic, operator of XVideos.com, and NKL Associates, operator of XNXX.com, an advocate general of the European Union’s Court of Justice advised France’s top administrative court that the country may require pornographic websites headquartered in other EU states to comply with its age verification laws.

PHOENIX — Pornhub to Be Geoblocked in Arizona as Age Verification Law Takes Effect

Aylo will block access to Pornhub across Arizona beginning Sept. 26, when the state’s new age verification law, HB 2112, goes into effect.

In a statement, the company reiterated its support for protecting minors but criticized the way many governments have approached the issue.

“Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous,” the statement read. “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. Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws.”

Arizona lawmakers passed HB 2112 in May. The bill was authored by Republican State Representative Nick Kupper, who modeled it after legislation in Texas that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

HB 2112 closely resembles a previous Arizona bill, HB 2856, which Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed, citing concerns it lacked bipartisan support and did not “work within the bounds of the First Amendment.” The new measure passed after gaining enough Democratic support to reach Hobbs’ desk.

Some observers believe lawmakers were responding to shifting political dynamics following Donald Trump’s electoral victory.

“We are well aware that the optics of voting against these bills is difficult for policymakers,” said Free Speech Coalition spokesperson Mike Stabile in May.

Aylo argues that such laws push users to less secure parts of the internet.

“We have seen how this scenario plays out in the United States,” the company continued. “In Louisiana, Pornhub was one of the few sites to comply with the new law. Since then, our traffic in Louisiana dropped approximately 80 percent. These people did not stop looking for porn. They just migrated to darker corners of the internet that don’t ask users to verify age, that don’t follow the law, that don’t take user safety seriously, and that often don’t even moderate content. In practice, the laws have just made the internet more dangerous for adults and children.”

Arizona will join a growing list of states where Aylo has blocked Pornhub, including Texas, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia, Utah, Nebraska, and Alabama. In each case, Pornhub’s landing page has been replaced with a safe-for-work video featuring Cherie DeVille, who explains the reasons for the restriction.

“As you may know, your elected officials have required us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website,” DeVille says in the video. “While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users, and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk.”

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.”

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan lawmakers are weighing a controversial proposal that would not only target pornography online but also ban the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and other digital tools commonly used for online privacy and security.

House Bill 4938, introduced by far-right Republican Rep. Josh Schriver and co-sponsors, is being called the Anti-Corruption of Public Morals Act. The measure seeks to criminalize the distribution of pornography online while also restricting access to what it terms “circumvention tools.”

According to the bill, “circumvention tools” include “any software, hardware, or service designed to bypass internet filtering mechanisms or content restrictions, including virtual private networks, proxy servers, and encrypted tunneling methods to evade content restrictions.”

Critics argue the legislation would have sweeping consequences far beyond adult content, affecting millions of Michiganders who rely on VPNs for privacy, data protection, and remote work. Businesses, schools, journalists, and everyday internet users often employ VPNs to safeguard sensitive information.

“It’s shameful and a complete waste of tax dollars for such a proposal, and if need be, I will appear before the Michigan legislature to oppose this insanity,” said Corey Silverstein, a Michigan-based attorney who represents adult entertainment businesses.

The proposal echoes efforts in other states where lawmakers have pushed for strict online age-verification laws and broader restrictions on adult content. In practice, however, attempts to regulate VPNs at the state level have typically failed, given that they are widely used for legitimate purposes and are protected under federal laws governing commerce and internet access.

For now, legal observers say the chances of HB 4938 becoming law remain slim. Even if it were to advance, any attempt to ban VPNs would likely face immediate constitutional challenges in court.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), under the Trump administration, on Friday released draft guidance on implementing President Donald Trump’s campaign promise of “no taxes on tips.” Sex workers, however, are explicitly excluded.

While some adult content creators had hoped to benefit, the “no tax for tips” provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, advanced by Republicans in Congress and the White House, do not apply to pornographic work or other forms of consensual sex work.

“The proposed regulations would provide that amounts received for services the performance of which is a felony or misdemeanor under applicable law are not qualified tips,” the draft regulation states. “In addition, the proposed regulations would provide that amounts received for prostitution services and pornographic activity are not qualified tips.” It further specifies that “any amount received for pornographic activity is not a qualified tip.”

Nate Mallory, a tax attorney who represents clients in the adult entertainment industry, had previously warned that lawmakers and regulators were unlikely to interpret the law broadly enough to include sex workers.

He added, “The exclusion of adult industry workers from tip tax benefits would raise serious constitutional concerns.

“Such selective application of tax benefits based on moral judgments about certain occupations could violate Equal Protection principles and would be counterintuitive to the core function of the Internal Revenue Service: to generate and collect tax revenue for the federal budget.”

Mallory concluded: “Tax policy should be based on economic principles, not moral judgments.”

Historical Context

The IRS has a long record of imposing strict tax rules on the adult entertainment industry. Performers and creators have been required to pay both income and self-employment taxes on all earnings, including tips, custom content, and income from subscription platforms. In past cases, courts have consistently upheld the IRS’s authority to tax sex workers even when their underlying activities were criminalized under state or federal law.

For example, strip club performers have successfully deducted work-related expenses — such as costumes, stage makeup, and even cosmetic surgery — but the IRS has never exempted them from paying taxes on income. Similarly, cam performers and independent adult content creators are treated as self-employed workers, responsible for tracking and reporting every dollar earned, regardless of whether it comes through platforms like OnlyFans, live chat services, or direct tips.

By explicitly excluding pornography and prostitution from the “no tax on tips” rule, the new proposal underscores the government’s longstanding approach: while the adult industry is expected to fully comply with tax obligations, its workers rarely receive the same benefits or protections extended to other sectors.

Legal experts say the draft guidance could face challenges, especially if courts view the exclusion as discriminatory or inconsistent with the principle that tax law should be neutral. For now, however, sex workers remain outside the scope of Trump’s “no tax on tips” promise.