Europe classifies three adult sites as worthy of its toughest internet regulations
- Reference: 1703140329
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/12/21/europe_nsfw_vlops_sites/
- Source link:
In a Wednesday [1]announcement , the Commission (EC) named Pornhub, Stripchat, and XVideos as VLOPs because, like other entities in this category, they fulfil the threshold of 45 million average monthly users in the EU.
The EC previously designated 19 VLOPs – among them Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Wikipedia and YouTube. The Digital Services Act (DSA) requires freshly designated VLOPs to comply with many security, privacy and consumer safety requirements within four months of being added to the category.
[2]
Those requirements include mitigation measures to address risks linked to the dissemination of child sexual abuse material and protections for minors including measures that prevent them from accessing pornographic material online – including age verification tools.
[3]
[4]
VLOPs must also publish transparency reports on content moderation decisions and risk management practices every six months, and file reports on their systemic risks and audit results once a year.
[5]EU launches investigation into X under Digital Services Act
[6]Amazon's retail wing tops list of take-down demands from Europe under new DSA law
[7]Big Tech has failed to police Russian disinformation, EC study concludes
[8]Europe's tough new rules for Big Tech start today. Is anyone ready?
European commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton's canned quote commenting on the fresh VLOP designations states "I have been very clear that creating a safer online environment for our children is an enforcement priority under the DSA."
The nature of the material the three sites host means designating them as VLOPs in just the second batch of such notifications is an eloquent statement of the DSA at work.
The designation appears sound on both audience size and the DSA's aim of "tackling illegal content and societal risks online."
[9]
As The New York Times [10]reported in 2020, Pornhub is known to have put women at risk as it seemingly chose to ignore the presence of millions of nonconsensual and/or child sexual abuse videos on its platform. The Times report included harrowing details of the impact those videos created. The site removed many videos after the report was published.
Pressure to do more to keep the site safe is surely welcome. And being designated as a VLOP is very significant pressure.
Appeals against VLOP classifications are possible: German fashion house [11]Zalando and [12]Amazon have both already done so.
[13]
The Register searched the websites of the three sites' owners (and not, for NSFW reasons, the sites themselves) for any sign of comment. Only Pornhub's parent, Aylo, publishes a press release feed, and at the time of writing no posts addressed the EC decision. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_23_6763
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZYQa3REIf6kVi0iAxoP2FAAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZYQa3REIf6kVi0iAxoP2FAAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZYQa3REIf6kVi0iAxoP2FAAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/18/eu_x_investigation/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/13/amazons_retail_outfit_tops_list/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/05/big_tech_vlops/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/25/google_eu_dsa/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZYQa3REIf6kVi0iAxoP2FAAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/sunday/pornhub-rape-trafficking.html
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/27/zalando_vlop_lawsuit/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/11/amazon_sues_eu_dsa/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZYQa3REIf6kVi0iAxoP2FAAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I suppose the EU will let a website off if the number of users goes significantly below the limit for a few years.
However, users don't need a subscription to access those websites... Or So I've Been Told!™
So they don't have a mechanism to limit the number of their users.
"Thierry Breton's canned quote commenting on the fresh VLOP designations states "I have been very clear...""
Anybody else heartily sick of hearing the phrase "I have been very clear" by now? Makes me want to punch somebody. Usually a political somebody.
Funnily enough, anytime someone of a political persuasion opens their mouth, I get that temptation. Even before the words come out...
How do you know a Politician is lying? Their mouth is moving...
"How do you know a Politician is lying? Their mouth is moving..."
And when it isn't moving then they are lying by omission.
I wonder if they will do age verification or just block EU access to the sites.
The EU seems to believe that AV that preserves privacy and also prevents identifying information from being stored on an external site to track you across sites exists when that not really true at all .
Imho AV is doomed to fail.
Now would be the perfect time ....
.... to short Pornhub.
Either they introduce AV and their turnover crashes as everyone moves to other RSI-based sites that do not have AV. Or they don't introduce it in which case they get a big fine from the EU.
Either way their stock will tank.
---------> Guess I'll have to test my 'suit' to make sure it is compatible with other sites!
Re: Now would be the perfect time ....
Or they'll "pull out" of the EU to avoid the stupid unworkable regulations. What a great time to not be an EU member state!
Re: Now would be the perfect time ....
With all due respect "KittenHuffer" sounds like the sort of name I'd associate with the artistes of PH ***cough***
So, a few porn sites are now VLOPs
I think this is a right move. Obviously, porn sites are a magnet for a large part of the (male) population, and I'm guessing that the 15-18 bracket is not insignificant. If I'm not mistaken, porn sites are already putting up a popup requiring that you are of age, but obviously there is no verification yet. I don't see that being a VLOP is going to change that. The regulations concern security, privacy and consumer safety, not age verification.
Obviously, age verification could be added for porn sites.
That'll throw a spanner in the works !
> The Register searched the websites of the three sites' owners (and not, for NSFW reasons, the sites themselves)
So your research is incomplete? What do we pay you for?
ID grab.
Just load balance and share.
so Pornhub becomes an upload site hosting no content. Go there to upload or to click on a forwarding link which takes you to wristexerciser.com or happyending.com or wherever, which host all of pornhub's content until they hit 44m EU views, and then switch to another. Each site gets its own staff.
Other sites, like Social Media, can do the same.
Or operate using a distributed methodology, effectively building a slice of the site on the user's machine as they surf via P2P software or the e-mail protocol. Fully encrypted, no site visits.
So what happens if those site cut their subscription numbers back to 44.9 million and refuse further signups? Do they stop being a VLOP? Or is it a case of once a VLOP always a VLOP?