Meanwhile in DC: Big Porn Hires Lobbyists to Make Friends in High Places, But Which Industry Has More Creeps?

“Mr. Dick Goes to Washington” would have been a great headline back in 1929 when porn was first hitting its stride. But for some reason, Big Porn famously steered clear of the horndogs in D.C. So why, after all this time, did a major porn union just hire its first lobbying firm to pull fluff jobs on congressmen?

Innocuously named the Free Speech Coalition, California’s skin flick trade organization has beat back aggressive laws targeting its industry since the ’90s – something it could do locally without showing its face around Capitol Hill. But the growth spurt of user-generated internet porn over the past decade has created an Achilles tendon for the billion-dollar industry called Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The CDA was written to prevent minors from gaining access to sexually explicit material on the internet (how’s that working out guys?) And Section 230 is a powerful prophylactic for user-generated websites – not just PornHub and OnlyFans but Facebook and TikTok – protecting them from illegal content users might post to their sites.

Facebook and PornHub may seem like strange bedfellows, but thanks to Trump’s Twitter ban last year Republicans are looking to take down social media behemoths who they believe unfairly censor conservative chatter. Their ire has pushed Section 230 to the verge of sweeping reforms, and now the very future of porn is at stake.

The Democrats agree that reforms are needed, but view Section 230 as an opportunity to slice their way to a cleaner, less controversial internet. That’s why Free Speech Coalition has hired two lobbyists on K Street to protect their interests by making friends with lawmakers to stop them from performing a willy nilly circumcision on modern porn.

Largely based in California, Big Porn has added substantial girth to one of the biggest economies in the world. But if the rules governing user-generated content on social media platforms are overhauled, the whole thing would come crashing down like some giant inflatable penis that’s sprung a leak. And as intriguing as that sounds, can humans even survive in a world without porn?

Cover Photo: RyanJLane (Getty Images)

Visit the Mandatory Shop for great deals on your very own Mandatory merch.

Follow Mandatory on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.