The tube site Pornhub aims to remain available in countries where pornographic content is censored and the company’s website is blocked. To this end, the Pornhub has created a Darknet mirror of its website and can now be accessed anonymously via the Tor browser.
While pornography has always been banned in some countries and several others are increasingly using filters and blocks to censor online pornography, a growing censorship movement has also emerged in Western countries in recent years. The time when online porn providers and streamers could go about their business relatively unobstructed seems to be over. And in the USA, New Zealand, Great Britain and numerous European countries obstacles and political problems could soon become even more difficult.
With reference to the persecution of LGBTQ people, Pornhub has now decided to also offer its services via the so-called Darknet. Access to Darknet is possible via a special browser, the most popular one is called Tor and is said to be pre-installed in the latest version of the browser Firefox. This allows surfing in relative anonymity and also provides the opportunity of offering content and goods in relative anonymity. Even in countries like China and Russia, censorship restrictions can be circumvented using the darknet.
The entire Pornhub offering is thus mirrored on a so called onion page, the http-equivalent to the darknet. For the user, Tor works almost like any other browser, although the speed is often extremely slow. That’s because traffic is redirected over multiple IPs to hide the actual visitor’s IP to the website as well as from any potential eavesdroppers, be at nosy governments or other parties.
Pornhub VP Corey Price says: »Here at Pornhub, we are privacy-conscious and dedicated to ensuring the confidentiality of our users. As ill-willed hackers and compromising surveillance practices become growing concerns, it’s important that we set up internal safeguards to help anonymize the online activity and communication of our users and keep their personal information and digital footprint-free from prying eyes. Over the course of the past few years, companies like Facebook, The New York Times and the BBC have set up Tor mirror sites to encrypt and make individual connections on the Internet less traceable. We wanted to follow in their footsteps and introduce a Tor mirror site for Pornhub users. This will help ensure their browsing experience is anonymous, private and secure.«
The Tor Browser is currently being developed by a non-profit group with funding from the National Science Foundation. The nodes that make traffic anonymous are also run by volunteers around the world.
This is the Pornhub Tor address: http://pornhubthbh7ap3u.onion/.