European regulators are investigating Pornhub. On Monday, the European Commission (EC) accused the platform of not doing enough to block underage access. Also included in the investigation are Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos.
The EC suspects the porn sites have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA), which includes child safety measures. Specifically, it accused the platforms of lacking age restriction tools. All four sites let EU users watch content after clicking a single button to confirm they're over 18.
In a statement to Engadget, Pornhub said it's "fully committed" to the online safety of minors. "Our sites are fully RTA compliant as rated by the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP), and are strictly reserved for those of legal age only," the company said. It added that it believes device-level verification, rather than on the website, is "the real solution."
"Children should not have access to pornographic content," EC spokesperson Thomas Regnier said at a press conference (viaThe Guardian). "This is why today the commission has opened [the] investigations."
Next, regulators will carry out an in-depth probe. If the companies are found to be in violation, they could face fines of up to six percent of their global annual turnover. However, the EC could also accept remedies from the companies.
The DSA allows the commission to regulate online platforms with over 45 million users. Those missing that mark fall under the jurisdiction of the EU's 27 member states. On that note, the commission said Stripchat no longer meets that threshold. Moving forward, it will be regulated by Cyprus, where its parent company operates. However, the new designation doesn't take effect for four months, so it remains part of the probe.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/eu-regulators-are-investigating-pornhub-and-three-other-sites-194234570.html?src=rss
Welcome to the initial installment of Video Games Weekly on Engadget. Expect a new story every Monday (yes, we realize today is Tuesday), broken into two parts. The first is a space for short essays, observations and ramblings about video game trends and related topics from me, a reporter who's covered the industry for more than 13 years. The second contains the video game stories from the past week that you need to know about, including some headlines from outside of Engadget.
Please enjoy — and I'll see you next week.
I’ve noticed a growing sentiment in some of my favorite queer gaming forums regarding Grand Theft Auto VI, and it’s both making me laugh and causing me deep anxiety about the malleable nature of our shared reality. When the second trailer for GTA VI dropped on May 6, one of its protagonists, Jason, became an instant sex symbol among the gays, and the thirsty memes started rolling in. This was light-hearted and fun, but at the same time, the alt-right gaming crowd was freaking out about Jason being too gay — even though, canonically, he’s clearly a straight dude. Queer players accused the neo-Nazis of projection, and the memes exalting Jason as a gay icon ramped up, until, somewhere along the way, it stopped being a joke. I started to see earnest comments suggesting the GTA franchise was a bastion of inclusion and an outspoken friend to the LGBT+ community. I saw queer players talk about GTA VI as if it were going to be a warm and welcoming space, something made for us.
And I oop — that is some serious grand theft gaslighting, friends.
I’m not here to burst any bubbles, and I sincerely hope that GTA VI presents well-rounded, diverse characters with thoughtful storylines. However, when it comes to queer issues, that’s just not what the series does. GTA has a history of perpetuating harmful stereotypes about transgender people in particular, and GTA V specifically provided a platform for players to enact violence against trans characters.
I covered this topic in-depth in 2020, and at the time I spoke with Dr. Ben Colliver, a lecturer in criminology at Birmingham City University and the author of “Representation of LGBTQ Communities in the Grand Theft Auto Series.” Violence against trans people in the United States has long been recognized as an epidemic, and in 2025, the situation is worse than ever — lawmakers are legalizing transphobia and shutting down access to gender-affirming care, using trans lives as a political football. It’s a bad time for the LGBT+ community to have false friends, which is one reason I cringe when I see people rewriting the history of GTA.
Ugly stereotypes and targeted violence are part of GTA’s DNA, so the common argument here is that, actually, the series punches in all directions and that means it isn’t discriminatory. But, this take doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Dr. Colliver’s analysis found that straight, cis men in GTA games remain largely unscathed, and characters who represent oppressed groups are often the ones used as punchlines.
“Largely it is LGBT people, sex workers and women who are portrayed in a bad way,” Dr. Colliver said in 2020. “Typically, men in the game conform to almost these traditional masculine stereotypes that we expect of men around violence and aggression.”
The only subject that GTA really takes seriously is masculinity, and even then it approaches the topic from a basic lens. GTA presents mainstream straight-male power fantasies with a Michael Bay flair and a teenage sense of edginess, and GTA VI looks to be more of the same. That’s even with the inclusion of a female protagonist — Lucia, who is very much involved with Jason, who is actually straight-coded despite appealing massively to gay men, which I believe was a total accident on Rockstar’s part.
(And because I can hear your screams from here: Yes, The Ballad of Gay Tony exists and it’s a fine piece of DLC for GTA IV focused on a queer character. The thing is, it came out 16 years ago — before Rockstar built trans violence into GTA V — and even though it was incredibly well-received, the studio has yet to return to its blueprint. I find that fact more telling than anything else.)
GTA is a non-subversive franchise built for basic bros, and this fact is only reinforced by the homogeneity of Rockstar Games and the complacency of its parent company, Take-Two Interactive. We don’t have data about queer representation at Rockstar, but at Rockstar North in 2024, women composed less than 12 percent of employees in the highest-paid roles. Across the studio, women’s average hourly pay was 43 percent lower than men’s. In its annual investor report filed this month, Take-Two removed all references to diversity and inclusion, and deleted any mention of awards the company has received for supporting LGBT+ employees. These moves are intended to appease President Donald Trump, and it’s the exact type of spineless, bootlicking behavior that the GTA series is supposed to mock.
Personally I love doing crimes and messing with cops, and as it turns out, so do most other video game fans. This mass-appeal ethos has helped make GTA one of the industry’s most enduring franchises. Please, just don’t bank on GTA VI being progressive or actively inclusive from a queer standpoint. We don’t need another reason to be disappointed nowadays.
More than that, we can’t let the alt-right reality consume our own. The people complaining about Jason being too gay are the same ones claiming that Widow’s ass isn’t visible enough in her Overwatch 2 Cammy skin — they are unserious people making bad-faith arguments about games as an art form. Do not absorb their messaging and do not engage with their lies. Think critically about their angles of attack and, meanwhile, play all the queer games you want to. One of my personal recent favorites is Sorry We’re Closed, if you’re looking for a sexy, campy place to start.
Avowed director and longtime Obsidian narrative lead Carrie Patel has joined Night School, the studio behind the Oxenfree series, as a game director. This is a big get for Night School and a sign that the team has some stability in its future. Netflix acquired Night School in 2021, before the launch of Oxenfree 2 and as part of the streaming company’s big push into video game development and publishing. Netflix has since closed one internal AAA studio and reduced its third-party output, but it seems Night School is secure and working on something story-heavy, if Patel’s involvement tells us anything.
Lili made history in May as the first video game to be included in a Cannes Festival competition, and it looks super rad. Lili is a contemporary, neo-noir interpretation of Macbeth, presented in full-motion video and set on the streets of Iran, featuring webs of government corruption and witches who work as hackers. It’s a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and iNK Stories, the studio behind the award-winning game 1979 Revolution: Black Friday. Lili is already on the festival circuit but it’s still in development, and it’s due to be publicly available in or just after late 2025.
Bungie only revealed Marathon in April, but the game is already enduring a rocky pre-launch period. First, the studio had to publicly apologize and review all of its Marathon assets after it was confirmed that the game’s alpha included stolen artwork. Then, Forbes dropped a report documenting the current tensions at Bungie, saying morale at the studio was in “free fall” across every department. The most recent rumblings around Marathon, which is due to land in September, are that its marketing plans have been scuttled completely.
GeoGuessr will no longer be included in the Esports World Cup after a quick — and clearly effective — community blackout. The most prolific GeoGuessr map creators pulled their contributions from the game to protest its participation in the EWC, calling the tournament “a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record.” Less than a day after the blackout began, GeoGuessr AB responded by abandoning the event, writing, “You — our community — have made it clear that this decision does not align with what GeoGuessr stands for. So, when you tell us we’ve got it wrong we take it seriously.”
The FTC was the last remaining voice rallying against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and it’s now been silenced for good. The FTC officially dismissed its case against Microsoft after losing its latest appeal earlier this month.
In a cute moment of serendipity, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold 3.3 million copies in its first 33 days on the market. If you were waiting for a sign to start playing, this might be it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/video-games-weekly-grand-theft-auto-is-no-friend-to-the-queer-community-193059427.html?src=rss
Coinbase has been betrayed from within. The cryptocurrency exchange said that cyber criminals bribed some of its support agents to share personal information about Coinbase customers. Attackers acquired data such as names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, images of government IDs, masked bank account numbers and masked sections of social security numbers. The perpetrators tricked some Coinbase users into sending them money and also demanded $20 million from the company to not publicly disclose the ill-gotten information.
Coinbase has not paid the ransom and is cooperating with law enforcement to press charges. In the blog post, the company said it would offer a $20 million reward for information that could lead to arresting and convicting the remaining attackers.
A Maine Attorney General filing (viaTechCrunch) says the breach affected 69,461 customers. The hack began on December 26, 2024, and ran until May 11.
Coinbase said that users' login credentials, two-factor authentication codes and private keys are still secure. It will reimburse customers who sent funds to the extortionists and will place additional safeguards on vulnerable accounts. According to an SEC filing, the incident is projected to cost Coinbase $180 million to $400 million.
Update, May 21, 2025, 11:23 PM ET: This story has been updated with new info from the Maine Attorney General filing.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/extortionists-bribed-coinbase-employees-to-give-them-customer-data-174713732.html?src=rss
FILE - The Coinbase app icon is seen on a smartphone, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Marple Township, Pa. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, it has received approval from the National Futures Association to bring federally regulated crypto futures trading to eligible customers in the U.S. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
CEO and founder of Celsius Network Alex Mashinsky has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by a US District Court. Celsius Network held about $25 billion in assets at its height, but was one of the many cryptocurrency operations to fail during 2022. Prosecutors were seeking two decades for Mashinsky, claiming he defrauded and misled customers about the status of his company's CEL token.
"His crimes were not the product of negligence, naivete, or bad luck," the attorneys said. "They were the result of deliberate, calculated decisions to lie, deceive, and steal in pursuit of personal fortune."
After an initial not-guilty plea to seven criminal counts, the former cryptocurrency leader pled guilty to two of the fraud charges in December. As part of his plea deal, Mashinsky agreed not to appeal any sentence of 30 years or less.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/celsius-ceo-alex-mashinsky-sentenced-to-12-years-for-crypto-fraud-210415388.html?src=rss
Alex Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, exits the Manhattan federal court in New York City, U.S., July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The Guardianreported that the UK's Ministry of Justice has been developing an algorithm designed to identify people who could become killers. Initially dubbed the "homicide prediction project," this tool used data from UK police forces, possibly including victims and witnesses as well as suspects.
Civil liberty watchdog Statewatch discovered the program through Freedom of Information Act requests. Based on the documents acquired by the group, Statewatch claimed that the program developed its prediction tool based on police data about between 100,000 and 500,000 people. Different categories of information shared with the Ministry of Justice appeared to also cover sensitive topics such as mental health, addiction, suicide and disability.
"Time and again, research shows that algorithmic systems for ‘predicting’ crime are inherently flawed," Statewatch researcher Sofia Lyall said. "This latest model, which uses data from our institutionally racist police and Home Office, will reinforce and magnify the structural discrimination underpinning the criminal legal system."
"This project is being conducted for research purposes only. It has been designed using existing data held by HM Prison and Probation Service and police forces on convicted offenders to help us better understand the risk of people on probation going on to commit serious violence. A report will be published in due course," a representative from the MOJ told The Guardian.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/uk-is-going-full-minority-report-with-murder-prediction-research-214254968.html?src=rss
The US Department of Justice has disbanded its unit focused on prosecuting cryptocurrency scams. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the end of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team in a memo sent on Monday, Reutersreported.
When the NCET launched, its focus was prosecuting cryptocurrency used in money laundering, fraud and theft. In recent years, the Department of Justice secured several high-profile wins in cases involving Binance, Tornado Cash and Bitfinex. However, the dissolution of NCET marks the latest government move to implement the current administration's crypto-friendly attitude.
Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at encouraging the creation of blockchain networks. Blanche cited this as his rationale, and ordered the department's cryptocurrency efforts to focus on "individuals who victimize digital asset investors, or those who use digital assets in furtherance of criminal offenses such as terrorism, narcotics and human trafficking, organized crime, hacking, and cartel and gang financing." Any investigations that run counter to this agenda "should be closed."
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has also been walking back its regulation of cryptocurrency, such as ending an enforcement case against Coinbase. However, cryptocurrency remains a risky endeavor, with theft still rampant at the individual and national levels. Additionally, the Trump family already has a vested interest in encouraging crypto operations, claiming a majority of revenue from World Liberty Financial's token sales.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/doj-to-disband-its-cryptocurrency-enforcement-unit-200347077.html?src=rss
Login
