The same way they banned drugs. Not very well.
this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2025
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Conservatives have been labeling anything and everything they don't like as "porn". A queer romance novel is "porn". Two male characters kissing on television is "porn". Drag queen story time is "porn". The picture book Heather Has Two Mommies is "porn". And the thing they're really most afraid of, educational resources for LGBTQ youth are "porn".
So by declaring porn illegal, they now have a pretext to go after everything they call "porn". Their goal isn't to remove all porn from the internet, it's to make it harder for people who need those educational resources to access them. It's not about porn, it's about "porn".
It’s not about porn, it’s about ~~“porn”~~ controlling the population.
FTFY. It's always about authoritarianism and control of the people.
As you've accurately identified, they can't. Best they have is say "nooo you can't" and hope sites comply out of pure fear. Even if they could, VPN.
They also completely bungled prohibition, drug prohibition, and the states with restrictive gun laws are bungling that. And women from the anti abortion states can still get out of state abortions.
Bans don't actually work, especially when there's already an abundance and the banned thing in question is easy to produce.
I will just add how Republicans try to ban everything they don't like, but when it comes to banning guns they are like "Bans Don't Work!"
The point is that Republicans never do anything in good faith. It's always lies and hypocrisy.
Tbh I agree with them on that, bans don't work.
But also I say the same to them regarding the ones they do want. Just because they're hypocrites doesn't mean I have to be!
Ban bans lol.
Bans implemented poorly don't work. And it also depends on what you consider a success. Can you ban anything 100 %? No, but that doesn't mean some shit should not be banned
More like whack-a-hole am I right?
I’ll see myself out.
Lol
It is impossible. US states make the law, and require the websites to self-block the IP addresses within the state using geo-ip. It's a flawed solution, but comes with the benefit of being able to sue any semi-large website for not self-blocking and the state receives free fine money. Best part is the state doesn't actually have to do anything, just pass the law and rake in the publicity.
You can block anything if you're stupid enough to think it's going to work.
It isn't a ban so much as being able to legally go after people who evade the ban.
If you are a reputable company in the right jurisdiction, you can be sued by the state for operating illegally. That is likely enough to get companies to block the state's IP addresses.
It's all a big plan to bring sex and rape back into real life public parks and bathrooms.
- Regulate all traffic sent or received across the state.
- Send traffic through a firewall.
- decrypt traffic
- drop traffic that can’t be decrypted.
Another easier way:
- Regulate ISPs with new state laws.
- require they block porn.
- Sue ISPs that violate the law.
decrypt traffic
drop traffic that can’t be decrypted.
This would be an absolute fucking disaster for myriad reasons both technical and practical. Any politician who earnestly suggests it as any sort of solution 100% has no idea what they're talking about and should not be taken seriously.
Yes, politicians talk about trying to do something like that, but the reality is that it would destroy security for businesses, institutions, and even the government itself. Encryption and VPNs are crucial to just about any modern business of even moderate size.
Many US companies have businesses inside China, it’s bad but it’s not impossible. I wouldn’t be surprised if a state actually doesn’t.
Those also companies use VPNs when they transmit, bring burner devices, and take other countermeasures to try protect their data from theft.
Additionally, there are plenty of people who are citizens there and still get around their firewall.
Actually getting rid of encryption or making it ineffective would be a disaster: IP theft, identity theft, and all sorts of other problems would greatly intensify without it.
I agree, but I was answering OPs question on how it would be done and an example of similar tech already in use at scale.
Aka, the great Chinese firewall
Hiding data in innocuous data could also work, eg by altering the pixel values of images subtly
That's really hard to do over https.
I really hope to see official declare a "war on porn". Considering how terrorism and drugs won the previous two, I'm sure it's gonna be a fun watch from the sidelines.
I don't know if terrorism or drugs have "won." The government is able to use them to fuck up the lives of people who they don't like... see venezuela and what they're trying to do with antifa.
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Send state troopers into ISPs and force them to things at gunpoint.