Category: Sex Workers

Fosta: modern raids in era of internet censorship

1/1/2021

In July of 2018, two bills changed the internet, specifically Social Media on the internet, forever. Both bills, the House bill known as FOSTA, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and the Senate bill, SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. Both FOSTA and SESTA where meant as advocacy steps for victims of Sex trafficking, a valid cause. But FOSTA specifically was problematic and targeted Sex Workers, entertainers, cosplayers and more. It is a modern Vice squad patrolling the internet, flagging content left and right. The bills meant website publishers, the platform owners, would be responsible if third parties are found to be posting ads for prostitution, iincluding consensual sex work, on their platforms. Because of the sweeping language in the problematic bills, numerous online platforms took action to censor or ban parts and installed algorithms to flag content on their platforms in response, Not just to cover their bottom lines, but because it was easier and less expensive than to be better moderators. This included shadowbanning: Shadowbanning is an obfuscated, internal process that prevents certain accounts from showing up in a feed, or prevents their handle, hashtag or phrases from being searchable, and is routinely used against female listed user accounts more aggressively than male user accounts.
Many sex workers have argued that, in practice, the impact of anti-trafficking laws is opposite to their stated intent. This is noted in Erased: The Impact of FOSTA-SESTA, a 53-page study penned by sex workers’ rights tech collective Hacking//Hustling. The study features physical sex workers and internet based sex workers. Many platforms prior to FOSTA were resources, one of the many benefits of this is the ability to negotiate with clients, and use safety practices regarding clients. Resources pre FOSTA helped market services, set boundaries and vet potential clients. This is common from dominatrixes meeting their new clients, to cosplayers booking a photoshoot with a local photographer. With FOSTA shutting down and shadowbanning these resources and tools, all have fewer advanced safety precautions in place, no ability to effectively pre-screen clients, and no way to ensure that they work in safe, secure locations. This essentially how women and trans people get killed. According to the Erased study 33.8% of the sex workers interviewed reported an increase in violent client experiences after FOSTA/SESTA. For sex workers specifically,online platforms can allow them to advertise independently, screen clients more thoroughly, and build community with other sex workers. A whisper network of bad clients who were abusive, or a list of unsafe spaces to shoot content at, now unavailable. Several studies can be found about Sex workers experiences from Backpage shut downs in 2017 due tot he lawsuit that lead to the dawning of FOSTA era. I highly encourage you to read those when you finish this.
But for specifically Strippers, Burlesque showgirls and entertaining artists that use Social media and other platforms for content based income or advertising, if we focus the camera lens, we see it’s the modern day minsky raid in the virtual world. Shadowbanning and auto algorithms that flag content are the latest addition to plague artists online. A prime example is when Patreon, a subscription service where content creators can monetize from their following, decided to be family friendly only, and installed algorithms that scanned public, not private, set content for “sexual content or suggestive content.” Which resulted in erotic novel authors, sex educator podcasts, models and cosplayers all getting flagged, their accounts frozen, and income put on hold, or content removed without notice. Myself and other performers tested this within the weeks it was particularly pesky. We posted images and content with keywords around female entertainment, and only the female accounts were affected. A male presenting body posing shirtless in a swimsuit was not flagged or shadowbanned. A Swimsuit based cosplay photo was flagged as inappropriate & sexual before any fans or followers had the chance to even see it. The auto algorithm seems to scan images and the first 15 seconds of video content for defined femme presenting forms and skin. Which meant swimwear, lingerie, and even artistic nudes where a no go. A similar algorith is used on tiktok where plus size or larger breasted femme presenting users where getting their content removed and flagged before receiving any confirmed views, because it particularly tarkets flesh coloured patterns of the female form. Which disproportionately targets people of size, which silences their art, while thinner counterparts make content less likely to get flagged with the same exact content and quality level. In facebook and instagram a photo of a a fat femme presenting body in a self celebratory post about feeling confident in a new dress or outfit, is more likely to get reported or flagged if the body is clearly defined, than the likelihood of the slutshaming, body shaming or sexual harassment comments.
So from popular hashtags on instagram, to images and video content being flagged and removed, SW artists everywhere where being silenced and frozen out. Some paypal accounts were frozen for “Suspicious Sexual Activity” for artists selling digital content. Some burlesque artists where being placed into “Facebook Jail” a virtual time out, for being in images of them tassel twirling online, thus losing valuable marketing time for upcoming productions. Pole dancers and Strippers were being locked out of instagram, unable to share with their clients and fans where to see them live next, because they posted a video of them in tight workout clothes while warming up on the pole. Sex educators where being blocked out of their gmail because their google drive had documents used for their research. This had been foreseen, the muggles had been warned, but no one listened to us. No one heard our cries until comic book artists, popular cosplayers, fan fiction writers, and the more “acceptable artists” were finally being effected long after millions of dollars for Strippers, burlesque showgirls, dominatrixes, and other SW had already been lost. Taxed dollars of independent contractors internationally. Platforms used by mainstream audiences, like Reddit, Kofi, Patreon, Twitter, & Craigslist, deleted content before the law had even been signed.Thankfully new platforms sprung up where there was need like Switter, Just.ForFans & Only Fans. These platforms where built up under the guise of being by sex workers for sex workers, but also welcomed tamer arts and content creators as well. Despite this the Erased survey reported that still 72.5% of online respondents are facing increased economic instability after April 2018, when both bills went into full fledged effect. 99% of the Erased online respondents reported that this law does not make them feel safer. But are we surprised? No, why would rich, white men in suits deciding laws based on antiquated ideals of “christain morals” surprise the very sex workers excluded from the conversation about them? They never do.
I posted online a research survey of my own to see how others where experiencing this beyond my social circle of dominatrixes, strippers, burlesque & cosplayers & sex educators, mostly queer & cis women. I left the survey open to the public and let it travel as far as it could go on social media platforms as well as a link on my blog. I gave surveyors the option to be anonymous or credited. I got back quite the response and I wasn't expecting it, frankly.
The glory of the internet for research and gathering data is that with one simple link and access to social media you can release a survey into the world and it will accumulate and swell with information without much monitoring. One can issue it into the world, get up and go make a cup of coffee, read a that book you keep putting aside, binge watch a streaming series, write chapters on other parts of your unsung slut manifesto, order new lingerie while steeping tea, and then return to the still incoming data and watch it rise like a loaf of pandemic bread in the oven. The simplicity was lovely, but the true beauty of it was hearing voices of fellow sex workers & performers I had never even met before, or that I have even worked with but opened up about their own struggles in the questionnaire part of my survey. Voices pouring in from all over the country. The staggering numbers & words of frustrations echoing in the soft blue light of my laptop screen in the darkness of my small apartment.
The safety of the anonymity option of the survey had granted me access to the most silenced among us. The fact that I knew when it was shared and spread via social media there was a comfort in knowing “This is from one of our own, not just random psychology student looking to profit a grade off their thesis that shames us, this is safe” after a glimpse at my profile and the caption to the link. I wanted the survey to be a safe space. And with those two things came raw honesty that rang with annoyance, frustration, dismay & even exhaustion, at how FOSTA/SESTA & systemic misogyny in online policies had hindered lives.
Women & Femme Presenting bodies are policed online now more than ever before, where even male content creators are taking note. “There is a huge double standard when it comes to what Femme presenting performers face compared to Masculine ones. As a cis-male, I can literally post nudes (not full frontal) online with no consequences where one of my femme colleagues will instantly be banned.” Said Matt Finish, Burlesque artists, model & content creator online. Matt Finish has art and content on multiple platforms, like facebook & Instagram, as well as the 2015 winner of Mr Exotic World for the Burlesque Hall of Fame & a routinely applauded performer in the Burlesque Top 50 by 21st Century Burlesque Magazine. He regularly notices and hears the frustrations of his femme colleagues in his industries as they struggle to market shows, post flyers, sell merch, and all the roadblocks faced, that he does not experience as they do. The internet is different for different bodies, and the survey solidified that even more.
53.8% of those surveyed were thirty to forty years old, with 19.2% in their sixties or older. 26.9% were between the ages of twenty five and thirty. 53.8% Identified as Women, 26.9% Identified as Men, and 19.1% Identified as Non Binary & other options written in. Many had overlapping careers in multiple categories, 80.8% were performing artists of some kind, from Burlesque to Drag. 61.5% were in the sex work industry from web work to in person. 3.8% where sex educators and even writers in the sex industry. 53.8% were visual artists from painters, seamstresses, to cosplayers & even cosplay photographers.
All of them used social media and internet platforms for their careers. Never before in research had I seen an eclectic group of diverse people have a pure 100% in an answer result. 57.7% of surveyors answered yes when asked “Is this your main source of Income?” When inquired about their most used platforms the results varied from Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pornhub, Ko-FI, Reddit, Instagram, Craigslist, Discord, to Adam4adam, fetlife, whatsapp, kik, behance, onlyfans, patreon & slasher. Some even listed their use of Backpage & Tumblr before massive sweeping changes happened.
72% of all surveyed had one or more of these platforms affected by FOSTA/SESTA. 92.3% had been shadowbanned on a platform, 92% had experienced being blocked, with posts canceled or removed or had their account withheld for “Sexual Content” issues. 3.8% where unsure & 3.8% reported no, they had not experienced this. That last 3.8% all identified as Male at the beginning of the survey.
50% of all surveyed have lost income due to FOSTA/SESTA. Per incident, 64.7% report losing $100-500 of income. 29.4% lost $500-1000 per incident. 5.9% of those surveyed lost up to an estimated $1500 per incident. When asked how much they think they lose per year due to FOSTA/SESTA related issues, 17.6% claim to lose around 10k.
7.7% of those surveyed felt comfortable enough to share if they had ever been arrested for indecent exposure offline in real life. 12% of them had also experienced a raid or an arrest while in a performing situation, whether in a stripclub or other settings. Some commented anonymously they felt the emotional equivalent of the stress of these experiences was comparable to online forms of over restriction.
Those impacted are also mostly minorities, when asked about identities the results were so diverse and showed how marginalized those affected are. 84.6% identified as LGBTQ+, 11.5% POC, 3.8% BIPOC, 7.7% Romani, 38.5% identified as Plus Size of Fat. When asked if they experienced additional prejudice for these identities on this subject, 32% resulted in “Yes.
The week of FOSTAs implementation so many sites had sweeping changes and overnight accounts where frozen, posts where autofalgged by algorithms that recognized femme bodies in images or phrases in captions or innocent hashtags about bodypositivity and womensbodies and removed. Erotic fanfiction writers lost access to their patreon followers, foot models lost a weeks worth of work in paypals frozen limbo for solicitation, sex educators had activists lost their tumblr pages of years worth of content and thousands of followers, dominatrixes lost entire websites that allow them to vette clients for saftey measures, Cosplayers with poolside selfies of their hand sewn anime bikinis lost their instagram accounts, pinups & entertainers saw reachability decline rapidly to seeing that their own fans had no visibility of any of the posts, workout videos of strippers teaching stretches for their pole videos where blocked from posting in 30 day wait times. All to prevent femme bodies from being seen to those who saught them out consentually. With plus sized bodies & BIPOC bodies getting hit the hardest due to algorithms making them more marginalized. The steps taken by policies to police femme presenting bodies online is not only harmful but undeniably draconian. The safety and financial security of those affected are put into jeopardy. All over the internet the femme body was on a pedastle but the pedastle was a cage, and elderly white men in suits in the comfort of their senate, held the key in their pens. They had signed away these humans autonomy and flexibility on the internet, with one piece of legislation. And platforms not eager to be held accountable for the law breaking of users, found it easier to punish, oppress and silence.

That was FOSTA/SESTA...I wrote this chapter for my book before 2020 was in full swing and SISEA was even presented as a proposal. Now we have a new threat. One that makes FOSTA feel like a soft opening of a more sweeping legsliation that will hurt all artists and content makers, not just Sex Workers and entertainers.

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Be apart of my last chapter!

5/16/2020

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My Last Chapter will be hitting very close to home for many of us: Modern censorship of our bodies on the internet and IRL in our work fields.
But I want your voice heard. I our want our statistics to be an accurate presentation of our reality.
Are you a Sex worker? Burlesque showgirl? Sex Educator? Erotic Writer, 18+ cosplayer? Stripper? webcammer? draw lewds/n00ds?ect ect
Have you been effected by Shadowbans/FOSTA?
For the very last bit of my research for Policing Muses, I'd like to get statistics and some experiences on the modern Minsky raid for the social media era of bodily artistic censorship: Shadow Banning & FOSTA/SESTA.
I have a survey so your voice is heard and preserved. It can be anonymous or by your stage name/ alias. I'd really appreciate making sure I accurately represent our struggles.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFpQiq_BmXw7FhU4kpsnB3zUb7oMdXNydvhdcsVwjfsvIMcg/viewform

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Fosta: modern raids in era of internet censorship

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