Sex Trafficking & Censorship
By A/E Welcome
A couple weeks ago, one of Holly’s most important episodes was removed by YouTube: her interview with Reason Magazine senior editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown on the subject of sex trafficking. In the video, Brown discussed how the moral panic is not only spreading misinformation and heightening stigma towards the adult industry, but endangering the very people it feigns to protect. Despite being grounded in verifiable fact and including a professional journalist and expert on the subject, YouTube claimed the discussion spread “harmful conspiracy theories.” Even once appealed, the website refused to make the conversation publicly available again. Only after the incident received some attention (specifically once an article on the subject was posted on XBiz.com) was the video quietly reinstated. The episode is about two years old at this point, but still painfully relevant, a fact blatantly communicated by the video’s removal. The internet is becoming a more and more hostile place for frank discussions of sex and sex work, let alone actual NSFW content, and the problem will only get worse if we don’t effectively fight back.
As someone who cares deeply about sex workers, adult entertainment, and freedom of expression I was disturbed by this event. Unfortunately, though, I wasn’t surprised. For years, I’ve watched as many of my favorite creators and sex educators get relentlessly censored by YouTube. Practically all my favorite sex+ creators, the folks who helped foster my belief in sex positivity and have taught me so much about consent, communication, safety, and pleasure, have faced discrimination and censorship. I’m thinking about educators like the delightful Dr. Lindsey Doe of Sexplinatons and Pup Amp from Watts The Safeword, who’ve faced demonetization, age restriction, and straight-up removal for years just for talking about sex and kink. It’s so much worse for those of us who actually want to create and consume explicit content celebrating these parts of living.
The last few years have been full of news stories about popular spaces for adult content and sexwork being severely restricted or taken away. Before Tumblr banned all NSFW content in December of 2018, it was a bastion for sex education and erotic content for years. A pillar of the online queer community, Tumblr was known as one of the best, most inclusive places for queer people like me to find content that reflected us and conversations that included us, especially in some of the most intimate and important arenas of life. That website was the first place I got to see a wide range of bodies enjoying themselves erotically. I can honestly say I never found high quality butch-for-butch lesbian porn before Tumblr; I never knew what bottom growth on trans men looked like before tumblr; I never got to see sexworkers like Lucy LaRue with physical disabilities coming together to celebrate their love of kink and pleasure before Tumblr– and then it was all taken away. Tumblr is just one example of the platforms that have banned or threatened to ban NSFW content, ripping communities of education and sexual freedom away from the public. With imgur (the platform where Reddit media has been stored) recently banning NSFW content and OnlyFans repeatedly threatening their huge base of sexworkers who make their website successful in the first place (not to mention the fact that most popular social media sites don’t allow NSFW content by default), the online spaces for sexwork and other sexual expression are dwindling every day.
As one YouTuber put it “The internet isn’t for porn anymore.” If you’re reading this, you know how much that matters. The fact Holly can’t even sit, fully clothed, and discuss the discrimination and fear mongering around sexwork without being targeted is just one small sign of the danger being posed. So, if you care about porn and the people who make it, and you want a world where we can talk about it openly, you need to speak up. When friends joke about perverts jerking off to porn, or coworkers turn their nose up at sexworkers, or family members tell you only weirdos think adult sex ed is important, that’s your cue to make your voice heard. You enjoy porn, you support sexworkers, and you think all consenting adults deserve to celebrate and discuss their sexualities openly without censorship.