Is that a missile in your pocket? Pornhub traffic in Hawaii crashed after false ballistic alert

Depending on who you ask, facing the threat of imminent death is either the least appropriate or the most appropriate time to visit Pornhub. We now know that the majority of Hawaiians believe the former, with the site's traffic from the US island state falling by 77% during the false missile alert over the weekend.

An emergency alert was sent out on 13 January warning of an inbound ballistic missile threat and suggested Hawaiians should seek immediate shelter". It added that the message was not a drill.

It was not a drill but it was sent by mistake by an employee at Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency (EMA) who "pushed the wrong button".

The message was sent at 8:07am local time and corrected 18 minutes later by email and 38 minutes later by text.

Pornhub Insights (a safe-for-work part of the not-at-all-safe-for-work website) shared a graph of traffic, revealing that traffic fell well below average as soon as the initial message was sent out. It stayed at that level until 9am.

A low of 77% was registered at 8:23am, followed by a steady and then very sharp rise to a peak of 48% above average at 9:01am.

"With international tensions currently at a high, it's no surprise that the warning was taken very, very seriously," said Pornhub.

"We can't begin to imagine what would go through someone's mind after reading that message but based purely on the traffic numbers, it's NOT to be watching porn."

Pornhub usage fell again quickly after the peak and by 9:30am had returned to a regular pattern.

Hawaiian governor David Ige said after the incident: "I am sorry for the pain and confusion it caused. I, too, am extremely upset about this."

The false alarm caused panic across the islands. One visitor from the UK told the BBC: ""It was one of the worst experiences because I actually thought we were going to die.

"I've got a daughter - Chloe - back home in the UK and I thought 'I'm not going to get a chance to say goodbye'. Everyone was genuinely terrified."

Runner Lucja Leonard added: "We all just huddled together and just thought - well, you know - if this is going to be the end I guess we're in a beautiful place, doing something we love but - God - it was pretty scary."