Malaysia watches more pornography than any other Asian country, study reveals

As cases of Covid-19 surged around the world, so did consumption of pornography. Lockdowns and restrictions necessary to combat the pandemic encouraged more and more people to search for adult entertainment online. In a recent survey conducted by Pornhub, Malaysia was found to be the #1 country in Asia with the most visits to pornography websites.

Globally, Malaysia was ranked as the #4 country with the most visits to pornography websites. Only Slovakia (#1), Bulgaria (#2) and Ireland (#3) ranked higher than Malaysia.

Other Southeast Asian countries that scored highly were Singapore (#8) and the Philippines (#10).

It’s no surprise that Thailand’s name didn’t appear in the survey, because Pornhub and 190 other pornography websites are still banned in Thailand. The Thai government banned access to Pornhub and other pornography sites in November 2020. The Thai government said the ban was due to pornography being illegal under Thailand’s cybercrime laws and because pornography “encouraged poor morality.”

Many Thais opposed the ban, criticising it as censorship, and took to the streets in protest. Soon enough, the hashtag #SavePornhub trended on Thai twitter. However, the government never lifted the ban which remains in effect today.

Much to the government’s disgust, Thais managed to find a loophole in accessing the banned explicit content. After the announcement of the ban on porngraphy, use of VPNs in Thailand increased by 644%. A VPN allows you to trick your computer into thinking you are located in a different country. Perhaps the Thais set their VPN location to Malaysia.

“Using a VPN helps overcome websites banned by Thailand’s government, which is why citizens hurried to download these services,” said VPN provider Atlas VPN.

Not everyone opposed the pornography ban. Explicit content on Pornhub is sometimes uploaded without consent, features sexual abuse and even children. One Thai activist said she agrees with the government restricting access to Pornhub because a video of her was uploaded to the website without consent.

According to Thai Enquirer, Thailand ranked 17th in the world for traffic on Pornhub’s website in 2019, before the ban came into effect. Bangkok came in 10th among the top 20 cities using Pornhub that year.

SOURCE: World of Buzz