IT’S disgusting.
That vile and degrading website PornHub is back after more than a two-month absence.
How do I know this? Well, I checked, of course.
I have taken it upon myself to look after public mores. I make sure these are not contaminated by filthy offerings that threaten to corrupt one’s soul.
So imagine my delight when the pornographic website became inaccessible when the country was placed on enhanced community quarantine at the end of March.
At last, I said to myself, I wouldn’t have to spend countless of hours every night after work surfing hundreds of different sexual categories as part of my research.
And when I say “hundreds,” I mean hundreds. You name it, they’ve got it.
You might want to know why I felt the need to conduct research. Well, it’s simple really. I just wanted to know the enemy. You cannot fight a battle if you don’t know who or what you are up against. Everybody knows that.
Anyway, I had the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to thank for the shutdown.
The NTC was reportedly responding to “a rise in domestic violence cases like sexual harassment and sexual exploitation” while the public coped with restrictions imposed by the lockdown to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading.
It had nothing to do with pent up feelings that are forced to the surface after staring at the same person day in and day out, 24 hours a day.
Or that machismo populism is back in vogue.
And never mind that majority of residents in major urban areas are packed like sardines in makeshift dwellings that offer no privacy whatsoever.
The government was just looking after people’s welfare. As it should. And because I’m a law-abiding citizen, I try to do my part to help.
Democracy.net.ph, a digital rights advocate, “pointed out that the government’s way of blanketing porn websites neglects in tackling the actual issue behind it.”
But what it failed to mention was that some users could still access the website without installing a virtual private network app.
Not that I was one of the lucky ones who... what I mean is, luckily I wasn’t one of those who could still access the site during the shutdown. Because it made my job patrolling Twitter for sexual scandals all the more easier.
It’s a heavy burden, I know. It’s like waging a battle that never ends. Sometimes it keeps me up till the wee hours of the morning. But hey, somebody has got to do it.