Starbucks, after a few years of promising it would, has banned porn viewing on its free WiFi. The company built a filter that would still allow mature content while blocking straight up porn. Porn purveyor YouPorn has amusingly responded by banning Starbucks coffee in its offices.
In a memo sent to employees by YouPorn by Vice President Charlie Hughes, effective on January 1st, Starbucks products will be banned in the Youporn offices. I can't imagine there will be someone walking around the office, slapping lattes out of people's hands. This is clearly being sent as a bit of a lolz from the executive team over at YouPorn.
In light of the news that Starbucks has blocked customers from searching and viewing adult content within their establishments, Starbucks products will officially be banned from the YouPorn offices, effective January 1st, 2019.
My take is that people should not be watching porn in public. I clearly have no problem with porn itself, but it is internet content that should be consumed at home, either by oneself or with consenting partner(s). So banning it in a public place through a content filter isn't a horrible idea.
It's cute that YouPorn is slipping into the conversation about what is and what isn't acceptable internet content to consume in public, but it's not the best take because watching porn in public is just damn creepy. Drinking branded coffee in the office is not. It's still an amusing take however, as in recent years sites like Pornhub and YouPorn have become a bit more mainstream. There is actually some content, like gaming insights posts that might inadvertently be blocked by the type of content filters Starbucks is initializing.
As to the validity of this memo (as it is being currently questioned in Slack conversations as I'm writing this), a YouPorn spokesperson assures me that it is, in fact, a real memo sent to employees today. He also tells me, when pressed about any repercussions from consuming Starbucks in the office, that we'll have to wait until the new year to find out if anyone is actually reprimanded for their undying Frappuccino addiction. I highly doubt it. You can take a lot of things from employees these days, but you can't take their Fraps.
