DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Explainer: How Montana could enforce a TikTok ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Montana's ban is set to take effect on Jan. 1 2024. While TikTok can theoretically block IP addresses registered in Montana, app stores will have a more difficult time. "It would thus be impossible for our members to prevent the app from being downloaded specifically in the state of Montana," the TechNet representative testified. The app stores also would need to monitor more detailed location data from users' phones than they currently use, infringing on users' privacy, Stamos said. "The youth of Montana are about to become America's experts in VPNs," Railton said.

☆ Temple University now offers a porn-studies course. In the class, students talk about things they 'don't even discuss with their closest friends.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Annalise Mabe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Temple University started its first porn-studies course this semester. Pollitt hopes the course will help students understand sex and sexuality better. Professor Jennifer Pollitt, the assistant director of gender, sexuality, and women's studies at Temple University, teaches the class, which garnered a lot of attention from students. The class often has deep discussions about sensitive material that students "sometimes don't even discuss with their closest friends," Pollitt said. Evelyn Andromeda, a third-year undergraduate student at Temple University, said she went into this class not really knowing what to expect.

☆ The editor of an online erotica site shares 3 tips to make your romance writing immediately hotter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Julia Pugachevsky | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Carly Pifer, founder of online erotica site Aurore, edits erotica stories professionally. It was one of the reasons she started Aurore, an online erotica community where women and LGBTQ+ writers can submit confessional-style true stories. "I want something slow, meandering, I want something that's like a tease…you're not going get straight to sex," Pifer told Insider. "I don't really care what color lipstick you're wearing and like how often as women do we really wear red lips?" Building up to sex is one of the most important parts of erotica, according to Pifer — and of intimacy itself.

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Uber wants to predict your habits, Apple and Google team up, and Lebron James eyes Complex Networks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

And minting it could be a solution to avert a major economic catastrophe (here's an explanation of the looming disaster, by the way). This average-looking coin could prevent job losses, steep cuts to retirement savings, and other major financial blows. Shopify employees and experts brace for shakeup. Multiple sources told Insider that his company, SpringHill Co., has internally discussed offering around $100 million to buy Complex from Buzzfeed. Google tells employees to limit publishing AI research.

☆ After Pornhub shut down its site in Utah, Google searches for VPN access jumped
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

After Pornhub blocked access to its site in Utah, Google searches for VPN access spiked statewide. The pornography site pulled the plug on Monday in protest of a new Utah age-verification law. Other related topics — everything from different types of VPNs to "what is a VPN" — also saw spikes in search, according to Google data. Utahns' increased interest in virtual private networks comes after Pornhub revoked access to its site for state residents on Monday. 287, which passed in March and went into effect Wednesday, Pornhub published a video statement on its site.

☆ Pornhub blocks access in Utah in response to age verification law
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Will Gendron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The move was made in response to a new law that requires age verification to access adult content. Utah residents trying to access Pornhub are in for an unexpected — and likely disappointing — surprise. "In addition, mandating age verification without proper enforcement gives platforms the opportunity to choose whether or not to comply. DeVille goes on to advocate for an alternative method of age verification, which would require users to identify themselves through their devices. Another Utah law that won't go into effect until March 2024 will require all social media users to verify their ages.

☆ Pornhub blocks access in Utah over age verification law
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Some of the internet’s biggest adult websites, including Pornhub, are now blocking access to Utah users over a new age verification law that takes effect on Wednesday. Pornhub and other adult sites controlled by its parent, MindGeek, began blocking visitors with Utah-based IP addresses this week. Pornhub, which says it receives 130 million visitors a day, is still available in Louisiana despite the age verification law. But it is unclear whether that system is currently equipped to perform online age verification. MindGeek also owns a separate age verification company known as AgeID, which is currently in use in Germany, though it does not currently operate in the United States.

☆ States’ Push to Protect Kids Online Could Remake the Internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

People in Louisiana who visited Pornhub in recent months were met with a surprising new demand. That’s because Louisiana lawmakers had passed legislation last year requiring publishers of online material that could be “harmful to minors” to verify that their users were adults. Louisiana is at the forefront of a sweeping national push to insulate young people from potentially harmful content by requiring certain online services to bar or limit minors on their platforms. The proposed restrictions, introduced by at least two dozen states over the last year, could alter not only the online experiences of children and adolescents. They could also remake the internet for millions of adults, ushering in a tectonic cultural shift to a stricter, age-gated online world.

☆ OnlyFans performer may be fined for shooting a porn film on a sacred site in Colombia, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

An OnlyFans performer shot a video at holy Colombian landmark the Rock of Guatapé, indy100 reported. The video sparked local outrage and could mean Katty Blake is fined by police. Katty Blake and a male companion were filmed in a sexual act on the Rock of Guatapé. The Rock of Guatapé is more than 650 feet high and is located in the town of Guatapé, northwest Colombia. Porn videos being filmed at historic landmarks in Colombia sparked outrage in 2014 when two were shot at sites including the Botanical Garden of Medellin.

☆ Pornhub users searched 'Stormy Daniels' a record 650,000 times the day Trump was arraigned: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Searches for "Stormy Daniels" surged on Pornhub the day Donald Trump was arraigned. Pornhub says a record 650,000 people searched her name on the site on Tuesday, per TMZ. Data shared between the company and TMZ shows that as news of the Trump indictment broke, searches for "Stormy Daniels" rose steeply, peaking at 631,254 last Friday. But her popularity grew even more on the day of the arraignment, reaching beyond 650,000 searches, Pornhub told TMZ. Search traffic for "Stormy Daniels" also grew on March 21, the day that Trump — inaccurately — predicted he was to be arrested.

☆ Stormy Daniels: Woman at center of Trump indictment is porn star-turned-ghostbuster
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Julia Harte | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, arrives at ABC studios to appear on The View talk show in New York City, New York, U.S. April 17, 2018. A Trump fundraising group sent an email asking supporters for more contributions after his indictment. After he announced his impending arrest, searches for Daniels on the website Pornhub jumped 21,655%, according to the site's research and analysis branch. And my mom was a trainwreck, and my clothes didn't fit, and I was poor and I smelled," Daniels told Vice News in 2021. Daniels has said she received the hush money in exchange for keeping silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006.

☆ Picking up the pieces in the wake of SVB's collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

It's just over a week from Federal regulators announcing they would be bailing out depositors of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Now, the FDIC said Sunday that New York Community Bancorp's Flagstar Bank will take on nearly all of Signature Bridge Bank's deposits. Credit Suisse, whose problems long preceded SVB's downfall, to be fair, is getting acquired by Swiss rival UBS. Silicon Valley Bank was the bank for tech. The people backing venture capitalists, known as limited partners, share their thoughts on how VCs handled the crisis at Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ The fund that just bought Pornhub owner MindGeek won't say who's running the company due to 'unfortunate stigma,' report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The private equity firm that acquired Pornhub's parent company won't reveal who's running MindGeek. Ethical Capital Partners told the Financial Times it won't yet identify MindGeek's executives. The new owner says it's keeping their names under wraps because of "stigma" about the porn industry. It details how a New York Times op-ed in December 2020 that accused Pornhub of hosting child porn sparked public outrage. CTV News reported that Tassillo told the hearing: "I truly believe, in my heart of hearts, that we are the safest adult platform in the world right now."

☆ French minister to raise protection of minors with Pornhub's new owners
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PARIS, March 17 (Reuters) - A French government minister will meet the new owners of the pornography website Pornhub to ensure minors are protected and that the site does not break any laws, he said on his Twitter account on Friday. Earlier this week, Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners said it had bought MindGeek, which has faced complaints over Pornhub's content. MindGeek said it would work with Ethical Capital Partners (ECP) on matters of trust and safety with regulators. "We have spoken with the partners at ECP. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Eva Mathews; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia's Wagner army is recruiting fighters on Pornhub in a desperate attempt to strengthen troops, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Wagner Group has struggled to recruit more fighters to support Russia in the Ukraine war. "Don't whack off, go work for PMC Wagner," an advert on Pornhub said, according to the report. "Don't whack off, apply for a job with the Wagner Group." The advert also includes a phone number, which is reportedly linked with Wagner Group recruiters. A Ukrainian military intelligence report, published in December and first obtained by CNN, said that Wagner Group fighters, which include prisoners, "have become the disposable infantry" in Ukraine.

☆ Pornhub owner MindGeek sold to Canada's Ethical Capital
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 16 (Reuters) - Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners (ECP) on Thursday said it had acquired Pornhub owner MindGeek, which has been mired in controversy over recent years. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Luxembourg-based MindGeek has been a centerpiece in the adult entertainment industry since the advent of video streaming, but concerns over the company's business model triggered the departure of its top management last year. Pornhub, MindGeek's flagship site, was also cut off by Visa and Mastercard's payment networks in 2020 following investigations that identified unlawful content on the platform. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika SyamnathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ An ex-Pornhub moderator said some videos that should've been taken down were missed and 'stayed up for months'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A former Pornhub video moderator said content that should've been removed "stayed up for months." The ex-MindGeek worker made the claims in the new Netflix documentary Money Shot: The Pornhub Story. If you're a victim of exploitation and in need of support please contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children online at https://www.missingkids.org/A former MindGeek moderator said many Pornhub videos that should've been taken down remained on the platform for months. "Many videos that should have been taken down stayed up for months," he said in a new Netflix documentary, Money Shot: The Pornhub Story, which is being released Wednesday. "Any insinuation that we do not have enough moderators to thoroughly review all uploaded content is categorically false.

☆ A reality TV star who posted an explicit video of him and his ex-girlfriend on OnlyFans without her permission was jailed for almost 2 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OnlyFans and reality TV star Stephen Bear was sentenced to 21 months in prison for "revenge porn." The "Ex on the Beach" contestant shared an explicit video of his ex-girlfriend without her consent. The video was filmed on CCTV at his home without her knowledge and was later posted on OnlyFans. The platform deactivated his account the day after Harrison reported the video, per The Sun. Users can report if explicit content of them has been shared online and ask the center to remove it.

☆ Meta is cracking down on revenge porn targeting children on Instagram and Facebook by funding a new tool to remove explicit images
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meta is cracking down on revenge porn targeting children under the age of 18 on its platforms. It funded a new tool removing explicit images online, released by a child protection organization. Over 20 million images of child sexual abuse material were found on Facebook and Instagram in 2020. Users can select images and videos on their devices that they don't want to be posted online or that have already been posted online. It also detected over 20 million images of child sex abuse on Instagram and Facebook in 2020.

☆ Meta launches a tool to proactively prevent sextortion of teens
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Meta is taking steps to crack down on the spread of intimate images of teenagers on Facebook and Instagram. To create a hash of an explicit image, a teen can visit the website TakeItDown.NCMEC.org to install software onto their device. Meanwhile, President Biden demanded in his latest State of the Union address more transparency about tech companies’ algorithms and how they impact their young users’ mental health. Meta recommends teens who have multiple copies of the image or edited versions make a hash for each one. “There’s no one panacea for the issue of sextortion or the issue of the non-consensual sharing of intimate images,” Davis said.

☆ Pornhub is requiring viewers in Louisiana to verify their age with a government ID as part of a new state law
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Pornhub is making users in Louisiana verify their age with a form of government ID, Vice reported. The move is part of the state's new law requiring porn sites to vet minors with age-verifying tech. But some experts say the law can increase surveillance and potentially hurt certain communities. The law considers minors as anyone under the age of 18. So far, Louisiana users can reportedly still access porn sites XVideos and XHamster without age verification, according to Vice, though OnlyFans is stuck on a loading page.

☆ Fact Check-Hooters not shutting down or rebranding to suit millennial tastes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The restaurant chain Hooters, known for servers wearing revealing uniforms, is not shutting down or rebranding, contrary to claims circulating online. Examples of the claim shared online can be viewed (here) and (here). The 2017 article did not claim that Hooters made the reported move to close certain stores specifically due to the Pornhub study, however. Nor did the article claim that the chain was shutting its doors to rebrand for a millennial clientele. Hooters is not shutting down or rebranding to suit millennial tastes, a spokesperson for the chain said.

☆ Hooters dispels rumors that it's shutting down and rebranding in response to study that claims millennials 'aren't that into boobs'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Bethany Biron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A viral tweet falsely claimed Hooters is shutting down and rebranding to appeal to millennials. "There is no validity to this story," Hooters of America said in a statement shared with Insider. The tweet — posted by Daily Loud, a website focused on hip-hop and viral news — claimed Hooters "was shutting down and 'rebranding' after a new study found that millennials 'aren't that into boobs.'" The 2017 study by Pornhub found younger people were less likely to search for breasts on pornography websites. After a series of viral TikTok videos shared by staffers, Hooters adjusted its policy to make the new uniforms optional.

☆ Mother takes Pornhub parent company to court over 'traumatizing' rape videos of her teenage son uploaded to the site
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A mother is taking MindGeek, who owns Pornhub, to court after a man was convicted of raping her son, filming the content, and uploading it to the site. Her lawyer told Insider that the videos uploaded to the site were "clearly" of a minor. In a statement to Insider, MindGeek said, "MindGeek is aware that a lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Alabama. As well as owning Pornhub, MindGeek owns a number of other adult entertainment sites, including xHamster, RedTube, and YouPorn. In December 2020, an allegation that Pornhub hosts videos depicting child pornography sparked both Visa and Mastercard to launch investigations into the site and drop ties with the company.

☆ Elon Musk told he's '100% wrong' for claiming Twitter is the internet's biggest click driver 'by far'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk claimed Twitter was "the biggest click driver on the internet by far" in a tweet Saturday. In a tweet on Saturday, the new owner of Twitter suggested the platform was the biggest source of referrals to other websites. Biggest click driver on the Internet by far," Musk replied. In terms of all websites, Twitter ranked ninth for traffic, just above adult website Pornhub. Musk is looking for ways to make Twitter profitable after saying last week the company was losing $4 million a day.

Search resuls for: "Pornhub"

25 mentions found