NEW YORK — The Daily Beast published an opinion piece by Cherie DeVille on Friday about the dangers of European legislation that could become “the first step toward kicking sex workers off the internet and banning porn entirely.”
The column, titled “Why Germany’s Strict Porn Rules Will Spell Doom for Everyone,” addresses Germany’s recent enforcement of controversial, vague age verification rules.
As XBIZ reported, last month Germany’s Commission for Youth Media Protection decided unanimously to impose a network ban on xHamster, alleging the adult tube site was in violation of the Youth Media Protection State Treaty and “is therefore illegal.”
Daily newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine noted that “the network ban is the harshest sanction provided by the German Telemedia Act” and that it “is unpopular and [was] quickly classified as ‘censorship.’”
The Commission, known in Germany as the KJM, issued the block order to Telekom, Vodafone, 1&1, Telefonica and PŸUR. The KJM's move came as a result of a campaign coordinated by the head of the state media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, Tobias Schmid, reportedly using the slogan “No Surrender.”
DeVille points out in her column that the German government has also cracked down on explicit content on Twitter and other non-adult-exclusive open platforms.
“Germany’s enforcement of the bill has, thus far, just harmed sex workers,” the noted performer and sex workers' rights advocate wrote in the Daily Beast.
“According to Wired,” DeVille continued, “Germany’s Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media sent legal notices to Twitter for hosting porn accounts. Since Twitter lacks age verification, the social media giant decided to bar at least 60 porn stars from its website. The Guardian reports that the same German law will force Reddit to also remove porn unless the company verifies ages. Open Rights Group told the British newspaper that Germany’s new law harms adults’ free speech and privacy to protect kids. Germany’s concern for children’s eyes starts and ends with porn because their age-verification system is just an attempt to topple the porn industry.”
The reality, DeVille stressed, is that “few people will verify their ages, many sites will ban porn and that’s what Germany wants. Their law has nothing to do with protecting children. It’s about censoring porn stars and making our businesses struggle.”
To read Cherie DeVille’s “Why Germany’s Strict Porn Rules Will Spell Doom for Everyone,” visit TheDailyBeast.com.