Utah’s VPN-for-porn ban is still on hold, but not for long

A ban on VPNs to access porn sites was supposed to go into effect in Utah weeks ago, but has now been put on hold.

The law, SB 73, expands on Utah’s age verification law of 2023 (SB 287), which requires proof of age such as a digital ID card, third-party verification service, or credit card, to view adult content or content the state deems “harmful to minors.” Pornhub banned itself in Utah when SB 287 took effect.

SB 73 mandates that a sex site cannot “facilitate or encourage the use of a virtual private network [VPN].” A VPN hides a person’s real location. The law effectively requires porn sites to somehow block traffic from VPNs, a digital civil liberties nonprofit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called “a technical whack-a-mole that no company can win.”

Now, the implementation of this law has been delayed due to a legal challenge by Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub. Aylo filed a complaint against the Utah Division of Consumer Protection and the state Department of Commerce on April 22, saying, “There is no possible way for a private company like Aylo to reliably verify whether a particular person is using a virtual private network (VPN), proxy server, or other location masking technology – and therefore there is no way to determine whether a user appears to be inside Utah.”

The complaint alleges that compliance with SB 73 could expose Aylo to liability risks under other jurisdictions’ laws, such as consumer privacy protections. Aylo says that it will be necessary to implement age verification for all users everywhere, regardless of their location, because, as mentioned above, there is no way to determine where the user actually is. Aylo says the law exceeds Utah’s authority under the US Constitution, as all states are supposed to have “equal sovereignty,” and violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, which limits the state’s authority to regulate interstate commerce. Finally, Aylo argues that Utah violates the Foreign Commerce Clause, which gives the federal government sole authority to regulate commerce with other countries.

Implementation of SB 73 is now delayed until September 3, reports AVN, but only Aylo properties (which include Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube).

“It is illegal for Utah to interfere with what people in other states are doing online, and the only way their law can work is to do just that,” said Lia Holland, director of campaigns and communications for digital rights group Fight for the Future, in a public statement. “Utah says they’re doing it for the kids. But passing a law where you get sued and waste resources is not the way you protect the kids. It’s time for the adults here to think.”

Holland is calling on Utah officials to join with tech justice organizations to pass a “fact-based and constitutional law to protect us all from bad actors online by giving us the tools to protect our privacy, our freedom of speech, and all the rights that big tech companies like age verification and VPN bans have been taking away.”

Although lawmakers say age verification laws are designed to protect children, preliminary research suggests they fall short of that goal and may instead violate adults’ First Amendment rights.

Proponents of free speech call for device-level filters instead. Aylo recently made Pornhub available in the UK again due to the use of such filters on Apple devices, after blocking it due to the UK’s age verification law, the Online Safety Act.