Porn companies join fight for net neutrality

The fight for net neutrality has once again gained momentum with a slew of porn companies joining the protest. Pornhub, xHamster, Kink, Redtube and ManyVids are reportedly participating in the July 12 'Day of Action' protests to help convey the significance of protecting existing net neutrality rules and guidelines.

Several porn companies like Pornhub have recently expressed their disappointment over FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plans to terminate existing net neutrality protection.

"Without [net neutrality], the cable and wireless companies that control internet access will have unfair power to pick winners and losers in the market," Corey Price, vice president of Pornhub, recently told Motherboard.

Net neutrality has been a widely debated topic for its massive influence on the mainstream media, especially the adult entertainment industry which thrives on the free speech and open internet policies.

If net neutrality protections are revoked, it could have dire consequences on the business prospects of the adult entertainment industry, besides allowing internet service providers (ISPs) to unfairly control the internet access to specific domains and websites.

"We were severely restricted by distributors, by billing companies, and by limitations in internet speeds. The quickening of the internet has meant that many more people have access, and can reach our content, and thus stop feeling loneliness and shame. When you slow sections of the internet, you're telling people that some ideas and sexualities and identities are second-class, and you bring that shame back. The internet becomes The Big Vanilla," explains Mike Stabile, a spokesperson for the fetish-oriented website Kink.com.

Stabile adds that Kink does not have the revenue to compete with the likes of bigger media-streaming services like YouTube and Netflix for bandwidth or content. Consequently, if the FCC succeeds in killing net neutrality, it would hamper traffic to Kink.com as ISPs could prioritise video traffic to YouTube instead of Kink.com.

Furthermore, ISPs may resort to throttling of internet speeds or filtering content and that would leave a devastating effect on users who would love to share their experience with others by sharing content.

"As an international company, we see every day how restrictive governments use regulatory tools, like traffic throttling, to limit access to not only porn but political speech," Alex Hawkins, a spokesperson for xHamster told Motherboard.

"What people sometimes miss, especially in the United States and Western Europe, is that sexual speech is political speech. The same governments that severely restrict adult content are also the ones that limit sexual expression, LGBTQ rights, women's rights and access to different ideas," explains Hawkins.

Millions of xHamster users in places like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Malaysia are already facing the wrath of non-existent net neutrality as a severe ban is imposed on porn content in the light of protecting religious sentiments and beliefs of the native people.

However, porn often finds its way through unspecified channels and sources like proxy sites as well as through the use of tools like Cyber Ghost, which often succeed in bypassing the restrictions imposed by ISPs and the local government.

The ban on net neutrality could have far greater implications than just affecting the business of some porn companies as it boils down to the freedom of speech and expression that are synonymous with an open world like the internet.