Justin Trudeau Rightly Points Out That Internet Porn Licenses Are A Dumb Fucking Idea; But He Still Supports Internet Censorship Bill

With the UK moving forward with its plans for an online porn license" for anyone to view adult content online, and with various state legislatures pushing to effectively require the same in the US, this dumb and counterproductive idea is proving quite popular among the political class.

Thankfully, not in Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (who hasn't been great on internet issues during his tenure) at least recognizes just how stupid an idea it is to require a special license to view adult content online.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that adults shouldn't have to share their personal information to access pornography online.

Speaking at a housing announcement in Cape Breton, Trudeau said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's endorsement of some sort of age-verification system for porn sites is something his party opposes.

He's proposing that adults should have to give their ID and personal information to sketchy websites, or create a digital ID for adults to be able to browse the web where they want," Trudeau said of Poilievre.

That's something we stand against."

I mean, it's a small thing, but at least we finally find a line that some politicians won't cross.

That said, even the context here is still problematic. Trudeau is pushing a different terrible internet regulation bill, also based on a terrible idea from the UK: an online harms" bill that will lead to widespread censorship.

Trudeau said Poilievre is playing politics" by opposing the government's forthcoming online harms bill- which is meantto combat hate speech, terrorist content and some violent material on the internet -while also endorsing a crackdown on some other online content.

Can't win em all, I guess. It's sad that Canada continues to push these kinds of dangerous bills, even as its government should know better.

And, of course, it's no surprise that days after Trudeau said all this, the new version of the Online Harms bill was officially introduced. It's dangerous in all sorts of ways that we'll be covering soon. So, while it's nice that Trudeau stops at age verification for porn, the fact that he has no issue with an online censorship bill remains a real problem.