Two prominent pornography websites have responded to Starbucks after the Seattle-based coffee company announced a plan to block explicit material accessed via their in-store WiFi.
Starbucks plans to roll out the technology in 2019, telling Business Insider via email: “To ensure the Third Place remains safe and welcoming to all, we have identified a solution to prevent this content from being viewed within our stores and we will begin introducing it to our U.S. locations in 2019.”
Starbucks says it will ban people from viewing porn in its stores by 2019 https://t.co/I3aTIh1lyc pic.twitter.com/Arz588hcjB
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) November 29, 2018
Third Place, according to an official statement from Starbucks, refers to “a warm and welcoming environment where customers can gather and connect” — and the move to block customers from accessing pornographic sites comes on the heels of years of pressure to do so. (RELATED: Why The New Starbucks Bathroom Policy Is A Steaming Cup Full Of Fail — Form A Former Employee’s Perspective)
YouPorn responded with a retaliatory ban on Starbuck products in their offices.
Starbucks to ban access to porn from free wi-fi in stores; in response, porn website YouPorn says it is banning Starbucks coffee from its offices. https://t.co/CfjN9RKpJK
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) November 30, 2018
Vice President of YouPorn Charlie Hughes sent an email to all employees notifying them of the new policy.
In light of the news that Starbucks has blocked customers from searching and viewing adult content within their establishments, Starbucks products will officially be banned from the YouPorn offices, effective January 1st, 2019.
PornHub took a different approach, creating an SFW (safe for work) category that could get past the block.
Starbucks Is Banning Porn From Its Public Wi-Fi So @Pornhub Made A SFW Category. https://t.co/wzb0zkrq7K pic.twitter.com/tg8WN6H6VK
— GQ Australia (@GQAustralia) November 30, 2018
Vice President of PornhubCorey Price issued a statement explaining the company’s plan to keep acceptable content streaming to Starbucks customers:
While we were aware some people’s preference in a sexual partner mimics that of their coffee, we were unaware that people were acting on such impulses when getting their caffeine fix. To comply with Starbucks’ new policy, we’ve created an option that allow fans to still enjoy great content to which they are accustomed, but that is appropriate for consumption in public places.
Starbucks has not yet released details regarding how the WiFi-blocking will work.