First They Came for the Porn Sites…

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a communist…”

Niemöller’s poem warns us how freedoms die not with a bang, but with silence and gradual compliance. And it’s disturbingly relevant in 2025, where under the glossy packaging of “online safety,” we’re witnessing a new wave of state-sanctioned digital authoritarianism. This time, the boogeyman isn’t communism.

It’s porn.
Then it’s speech.
Then it’s you.

The Regulatory Trojan Horse

The UK’s Online Safety Bill and the continent-wide Age Verification (AV) mandates are being marketed as common sense measures to “protect children” and “clean up the internet.” Who could argue with that? Nobody wants kids stumbling across violent porn or being groomed in shady chatrooms.

But scratch the surface, and what you find is a regulatory sledgehammer wrapped in moral panic. What began as a movement to protect the vulnerable is morphing into a system of mass control, censorship, and corporate capture.

Platforms are expected to filter content not because it’s illegal, but because it’s deemed “harmful.” But harmful to whom? According to whose moral compass? And who gets to decide? Turns out it’s Ofcom and the Minister of State, granted sweeping powers to define and enforce vague Codes of Practice without real parliamentary oversight. That’s not oversight. That’s overreach in a trench coat.

One of the key actors fueling this climate is Collective Shout, an Australian group rooted in conservative Christian nationalism. Though it claims to protect women and children from exploitation, its real campaign is broader and far more censorious. This isn’t about regulation. It’s about erasure.

They’ve pressured payment processors to cut off adult creators, kink communities, and even niche fandoms. Games have been removed from platforms like Steam based solely on their outrage campaigns. And because financial infrastructure like Visa and Mastercard is global, the impact stretches far beyond Australia.

When private institutions start enforcing ideological standards, we enter the realm of cryptogovernance not cryptocurrency, but covert control. Unelected, unaccountable actors shaping policy through financial pressure. That’s a future where culture wars are waged through your credit card statement.

Porn as the Canary in the Coalmine

Look at what’s happening to the adult industry.

Under AV mandates, users are asked to upload ID cards, submit facial scans, or link their phone numbers to verify their age. Enforcement is patchy, privacy protections are laughable, and workarounds like VPNs or alt-sites are just a click away.

The end result? A performative charade that does little to protect minors while crushing the livelihoods of independent adult creators. These platforms are targeted not because they’re dangerous, but because they’re easy to demonize.

Meanwhile, the biggest porn distributors Google and Meta somehow avoid the crackdown. Why? Because they’re too big to fight. This isn’t about safety. It’s about optics and power.

You Can’t Fix a Societal Problem With a Platform Ban

If we want to genuinely solve child exploitation, we need to deal with it at the societal level. Not by tossing more responsibility onto tech platforms like Discord or Reddit.

Take Discord, for example. There’s rampant child exploitation in private servers. But can Discord realistically prevent it all?

Suppose they ban private servers entirely. Users leave. Discord collapses. And the exploitation? It doesn’t vanish. It just migrates to darker corners of the internet.

If governments respond by banning private servers altogether, the only result is driving the problem deeper underground. It becomes harder to track, harder to stop just like the failed war on drugs.

Teach Kids, Don’t Censor Adults

When the UK Dances With the Heritage Foundation

The Heritage Foundation, a U.S. conservative think tank known for pushing anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-sex work rhetoric, isn’t just whispering to Republicans anymore. Their ideology is seeping into British politics.

The same people behind Project 2025, a plan to reshape American society, are now turning their attention to the UK.

This isn’t isolated. It’s coordinated. The UK is aligning itself with ideological actors who aren’t interested in safety they’re interested in power. Under the banner of “family values,” they’re burning down free expression.

The Digital Services Act in the EU, AV mandates in France and the US, and now the UK’s Online Safety Act these aren’t standalone laws. They’re dominoes in a chain reaction. And the people pushing them would rather criminalize sex than regulate violence. They treat freedom as a threat, not a right.

Wake Up. This Is the Slippery Slope

You may not run a porn site. You may not create adult content. You might even support tighter rules around child safety.

But if you think this ends with Pornhub being booted from France, think again. That’s just the rehearsal.

First they came for the porn sites,
And I did not speak out…
Because I was not a sex worker.

Then they came for the encrypted messengers,
And I did not speak out…
Because I wasn’t a journalist.

Then they came for dissent,
And there was no one left to speak out…
Because we were all behind digital bars of our own making.

Compliance Is Not Consent

The UK is drifting toward a future where your identity must be scanned, proven, and logged just to open a browser tab. A future where the government decides what you can say, and your rights are doled out in the name of “safety.”

This isn’t safety.
This isn’t progress.
This is compliance culture wrapped in Victorian values.

So ask yourself: are we asleep at the wheel, or are we riding shotgun with authoritarians in Silicon Valley hoodies and Westminster wigs?

Because once this slope starts sliding, it doesn’t stop at porn.
It slides into your inbox, your camera, your conversations, and your rights.