The announcement was first reported by Business Insider and comes after a petition from internet-safety advocacy group Enough is Enough garnered more than 26,000 signatures.
The nonprofit launched a porn-free campaign aimed at McDonald’s and Starbucks in 2014, and it says that while McDonald’s “responded rapidly and positively,” Starbucks did not.
Starbucks said in 2016 that the company was “in active discussions with organizations on implementing the right, broad-based solution that would remove any illegal and other egregious content,” according to a statement Monday by Enough is Enough CEO Donna Rice Hughes. But they didn’t act, she said.
“Starbucks has had a tremendous opportunity to put its best foot forward in protecting its customers from images deemed obscene and illegal under the law, but they haven’t budged, despite their promise two years ago and despite the fact that they voluntarily filter this same content in the UK,” Hughes said in the statement.
Starbucks says the company will start blocking pornography over its stores' Wi-Fi starting in 2019. https://t.co/KTZ5H3cb2m
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 29, 2018
Oh, ick. I need to worry about someone near me in the coffee shop watching pornography? What’s wrong with people?
The other thing that occurs to me, alas, is that places like Starbucks might start also blocking conservative religious or political sites, claiming they’re offensive.