GOP senator’s bill to make all porn a federal crime advances to committee

GOP Senator Mike Lee’s bill to make all pornography a federal crime in the US has advanced to a committee for review.

The Interstate Obscenity Definition Act (IODA) by Utah Republican Mike Lee, which aims to roll out a blanket ban on porn in the US, was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation last Tuesday (5 August).

If passed, the bill would redefine the term “obscenity” within the 1934 Communications Act to mean “prurient interested in nudity, sex, or excretion”, “depicts, describes, or represents actual or stimulated sexual acts with the objective intent to arouse, titillate, or gratify the sexual desires of a person,” and “taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value”. 

“A picture, image, graphic image file, film, videotape, or other visual depiction” of any media that “appeals to the prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion” would be considered criminal, as per the bill text. 

The bill also aims to change an “intent” clause in the Act, meaning that sharing “obscene” content, whether malicious or not, would hold penalties.

Lee said in a May press release: “Obscenity isn’t protected by the First Amendment, but hazy and unenforceable legal definitions have allowed extreme pornography to saturate American society and reach countless children.

“Our bill updates the legal definition of obscenity for the internet age so this content can be taken down and its peddlers prosecuted.”

Critics have called out Lee’s definition of obscenity in the bill for being “so broad” that even TV series like Game of Thrones could be at the whim of the bill and prosecution.

“It really struck me that there’s nothing about that definition that I think would survive constitutional review,” Robert Corn-Revere, chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told Reason. 

Adult content creators and sex workers have also rejected the proposed bill. Alana Evans, adult content creator and president of the Adult Performance Artists Guild (APAG) workers’ union, criticised the proposed law as “a real problem” and warned fellow adult performers: “They are coming for us right now.”

There are fears that the proposed bill could affect even “softcore” adult content creators on sites including OnlyFans, which several LGBTQ+ creators rely on for income. 

A pornography ban was also outlined in the think-tank Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a proposed right-wing manifesto for the ultra-conservative faction of the Republican Party.

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