Pornhub has withdrawn its services from UK users, claiming it is simply unable to comply with age restrictions imposed by the Online Safety Act. The explicit website may not be a cause to champion, but it is a canary in the coalmine, says Tom Harwood

The largest pornography platform in the United Kingdom has shut its doors to new users this week. Few will publicly mourn the passing of Pornhub. But the withdrawal of this business from British shores should worry us – not for the loss of its content, but what it represents about the internet.

It has been six months since the mass online censorship of the Online Safety Act came into effect. When browsing from Britain, people have already found themselves blocked from seeing reporting of war in Gaza, clips of anti-asylum hotel protests and written court transcripts from grooming gang trials. Even a Parliamentary speech had by default been blocked from view.

Unless you are the sort of user willing to hand over credit card details or a........

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