The popular porn site Brazzers has been banned in Russia. Internet service providers have blocked access, meaning Russian users have to get there through a VPN.
Russian government cock blocker media monitor Roskomnadzor, which previously banned LinkedIn for refusing to store personal data on Russian servers, says that porn flicks on Brazzers had a “deeply negative influence on the human psyche.”
It’s unclear what they mean by that, given that a wide variety of pornography is produced in Russia, including simulated rape.
Last year, the regulator suspended access to Pornhub, claiming the site distributed pornography illegally and violated Russian laws which prohibit access to LGBT material.
It wasn’t a lengthy suspension, and ended shortly after Pornhub launched a social media crusade to restore Russian access.
Video game publisher Blizzard pre-emptively banned Russians from viewing its Christmas comic as it contained an LGBT relationship to avoid being hit by the law.
The Moscow Times reports that the Brazzers ban came because of a decision by the Bolsheglushitsky District Court in the Samara region in October 2016, which called for the prohibition of access to Brazzers. Russian website TJ Journal states that the court also ruled that the website “violated citizens’ rights.”
The ban will not have a particularly deep impact on Brazzers’ traffic, as Russia only accounts for around 4% of total traffic. Most of its visitors hail from the United States, followed by India, the UK, Brazil, and Germany.
Brazzers only had this to say about the ban:
It’s unclear if the ban will encompass further pornographic websites, or if it’s just a one-off. Should the government decide to include other international websites on its list, porn-seeking Russians will have to stick to locally made material.
What a mess.