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Russian regulator bans PornHub for its ‘illegal pornography’

However, after an extensive assessment, Register staff deem site OK

Russia's telecommunications "supervisor" Roskomnadzor has banished Canadian smut-floggers PornHub from the nation's networks.

The decision to block 11 pornographic websites was made following a district court ruling in Krylovskogo, in the Crimea-bordering Krasnodar region, according to a Roskomnadzor press release.

Among the sites banned was PornHub, one of the most visited domains on the internet. Following the ruling it was placed on the Unified Register of Banned Information, on the grounds of hosting "illegal pornography".

The ban comes under offences contained within article 242 of the Russian Federation's Criminal Code (PDF), which covers the "Illegal Distribution of Pornographic Materials or Objects" and "Making and Circulating Materials or Articles with Pornographic Images of Minors".

PornHub, which is hosted in Canada, is domestically bound by Section 163 of the Canadian Criminal Code, which proscribes pornographic images depicting people under 18.

The Register is unaware of any Canadian investigation into the site on these grounds, however. Mike, a spokesman from the grumble-flick site, told us: “We can confirm that Roskomnadzor has blacklisted Pornhub in Russia and we are currently investigating and considering available means to reinstate our website in Russia.”

It joins Putin-upsetting luminaries such as Archive.org's Wayback Machine, a mushroom-growing post on Reddit and Wikipedia over an article on hashish. ®

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