Senator introduces bill that would make porn illegal in the US

Sen. Mike Lee has sparked left-wing backlash for introducing a bill that would effectively make pornography illegal in the United States.

Titled the “Interstate Obscenity Definition Act,” or IODA, the bill would officially define the term “obscenity” so as to grant law enforcement agents the power “to identify and prevent obscenity from being transmitted across state lines.”

The bill would specifically define “obscenity” as content that “appeals to the prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion,” that “describes or represents actual or simulated sexual acts with the objective intent to arouse, titillate, or gratify the sexual desires of a person,” and that “taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.

But hazy, unenforceable definitions have allowed pornography companies to infect our society, peddle smut to children, and do business across state lines unimpeded.

Today I introduced the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act… pic.twitter.com/E8Yw95o4pg

— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) May 8, 2025

“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,” Lee said in a statement.

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

The response to the bill has been swift and harsh. MSNBC called it “a free speech nightmare straight out of Project 2025’s playbook,” while Reason magazine’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown claimed the bill “makes a mockery of the First Amendment.”

“His proposal would make the definition of obscenity so broad that it could ban even the most mild pornography, and possibly even more,” Brown wrote.

She also obtained a quote from Robert Corn-Revere, the chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, about how he doesn’t think the bill would survive a challenge in court.

“It really struck me that there’s nothing about that definition that I think would survive constitutional review,” he told her.

Over on social media, meanwhile, critics were apoplectic over Lee’s proposal.

Look:

That is ridiculous, you can never get rid of porn it would be impossible, what a clown this guy is.

— Johan Nilson Nagel (@NagelNilson) May 14, 2025

Banning porn won’t compensate for Mike Lee (probably) cheating on his wife and mother of his children with dudes he meets on Grindr.

— (@newbuzzcola) May 14, 2025

All of the things happening in our country and the world… today’s Republican Party is choosing to focus on porn? Uh, good luck with that.

— Colton Stiell (@ColtonStiell) May 13, 2025

This is why no grownup can take the Christofascists who have wrecked the GOP seriously. This is bad performance art masquerading as governing.

— A. Jamie Saris (@jamie_saris) May 14, 2025

I would bet my house that that man’s laptop is riddled with porn. What, is he going to arrest the president’s porn star wife? or is this an attempt to finally bury Donald’s obsession with porn stars?

— whimsy’s other words (@whimsywordstwo) May 14, 2025

Oh the irony
R’s are down with thousands losing their job, their retirements, they want to ban porn, abortions, books, drag queens, social security, Medicare, the Edu, brown and black ppl but God forbid we keep kids safe from sexual predators and guns.
Sounds like control to me.

— JO (@frozenfldrinks) May 14, 2025

But supporters of the bill pushed back by pointing to the porn industry’s “not usually willful participants.” The fact is that a portion of the world’s pornography is filmed using trafficked girls and women.

“Out of the estimated 40.3 million people enslaved globally through human trafficking, 79% are sexually exploited,” according to UnboundNow. “Sites like Pornhub, the world’s leading free porn website, have been known to profit from filming rape, sexual abuse, and child sex trafficking.”

The truth about porn is its not usually willful participants

Democrats of course don’t care https://t.co/ViGFV5JBfO

— Matt (@amattattack) May 13, 2025

In 2013, Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo, agreed to pay restitution to the U.S. government to make up for having turned a blind eye to reports that women on its site had been coerced into performing on camera.

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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