Users who desire to upload content should be forced to provide ID to comply with US law as it relates to age verification of adult talent (2257 Regulation) [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult_film_industry_regulation...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult_film_industry_regulation...
2257 requirements even on primary producers have been struck down on First Amendment grounds for material containing a wide class of performers; Free Speech Coalition vs. Attorney General of the United States (3d Cir. 2020.) And, serious Constitutional issues have been raised about the application of 2257 to “secondary producers” like individual users.
And, even under 2257, covered “secondary producers” aren’t required to provide their ID, they are required to have specific information about the maintenance of records related to the perfomers age affixed to the content.
Edit: The comment I replied to has been edited and originally explained the owner was Canadian but serves US customers and so should abide by US law.
I don't want to claim to agree or disagree, I'm just not sure how to work out what's right.
EDIT: I edited my comment as I'm not willing to argue the merits of cross border law enforcement actions in this thread.
Really though, how does it work for a business like this? How do you not serve a specific country on the internet? I'm not aware of any technical solution to this - geoip databases simply aren't accurate.
For businesses where most customers pay, perhaps you can gate the site and verify payment details but that plainly doesn't work for the business model we're discussing as most people surely don't pay anything by design? This isn't Netflix?
To be fair, MindGeek has an office in the US. Now, if they closed that office, the argument that they were subject to US law would be weaker.