Sex workers fear a new wave of deplatforming — and the proposed Online Safety Bill

Sex workers fear a new wave of deplatforming — and the proposed Online Safety Bill

Avery, a sex worker, lost her first Twitter account in early 2020, built her followers back up, and then early this year was kicked off again.

When she went to set up a third account, she found she could no longer use the name she had been using for sex work and adult content — she'd lost her entire brand, including thousands of followers and many clients who only knew her by her former, banned name.

"I had to change my name, because I don't want to get suspended again," she said.

"And it can still happen. It's honestly terrifying to me."
Sex workers say they're being kicked off social media as part of a wave of "digital gentrification" and a trend towards "sanitised" online spaces.

On top of this, they fear that proposed Commonwealth legislation designed to make the internet "safer" may have the ultimate effect of making it harder — and more dangerous — to earn a living.

Some forms of sex work are legal in Australia, depending on the state and territory.

Being able to advertise cheaply online has allowed sex workers in general to work more safely and independently than had been the case before.

But in recent years, they say, the tide has turned — and now that change appears to be accelerating.

"Countless" sex workers have lost their accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in recent weeks, according to Australia's peak sex worker organisation, the Scarlet Alliance.

Similar reports are coming from the United States, with no consensus on why it's happening now.

Jenna Love, a sex worker of nine years who recently lost her Instagram account of 17,000 followers, said there appears to have been a "crackdown" in recent months.

"People are losing their accounts," she said.
How US laws changed the Australian sex work industry
On top of these perceived changes, many sex workers are also worried about the proposed Australian Online Safety Bill, which gives authorities the power to take down online content judged to be unfit for minors, and to set "basic safety expectations" for platforms and websites.

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Sex workers are worried this could give platforms even more incentive to ban them.
To understand these concerns, it's worth backtracking to mid-2018, when then-US president Donald Trump signed into law the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA).

The legislation to target sex trafficking made online platforms liable for any content that advertised sex work.

This immediately led to the closure of US-based classifieds websites that happened to be widely used by Australian sex workers.

Overnight, many sex workers found they had no way of reaching clients, Ms Love said.

"That first week afterwards, I don't even know how to quantify how many people I heard of that were instantly affected," she said.

"They instantly couldn't pay their rent that week and didn't know how they were going to put food on the table for their families.

"Some of them turned to [advertising in the street] for the first time."

As a result of the shutdown of these websites, Ms Love and other sex workers have come to rely on social media to reach clients. Ninety per cent of her business comes via Twitter.

The Online Safety Bill, she said, appeared "hauntingly reminiscent" of FOSTA.

Commissioner has power to take down X18+ content
The bill has two parts that worry sex workers.

First, it allows the eSafety Commissioner to issue a removal notice for advertisements classified as X18+, R18+ or RC (Refused Classification).

The Scarlet Alliance says this definition is too broad: RC can include bondage and X18+ is defined as anything "unsuitable for a minor to see".

Zahra Stardust, a researcher at the University of NSW, said the X18+ category prohibits any kind of fetish "from bondage, to spanking, to candle wax".
In response to these concerns, a spokesperson for the eSafety Commissioner said that, under existing laws, the Commissioner already had the power to issue takedown notices for this kind of content.

But they have chosen to not make this a priority — instead focusing on child sexual abuse.

"Our regulatory approach has always been to prioritise content depicting child sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as material that incites, instructs or promotes terrorism or violent extremism," the spokesperson said.

"This approach will not change under the new act."

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, however, made a similar point, though it also said sex workers should not post X-rated ads.

"Those wanting to advertise services online should make sure that the content of their advertisements is not classified or likely to be classified as X18+, R18+ or Refused Classification," a spokesperson said.

In effect, only a non-binding and informal "regulatory approach" stands in the way of the government using the laws to ban ads for sex workers, Dr Stardust said.

"The Commissioner is asking sex workers to simply trust that she will choose not to exercise her power to remove their content," she said.

"This is hardly reassuring, primarily because there are no consequences for her if she does."
Concerns 'safety expectations' will incentivise deplatforming
Aside from the powers given to the Commissioner, the Scarlet Alliance is concerned about the part of the proposed legislation that allows the Communications Minister to set "basic online safety expectations for social media services".

This includes the expectation that platforms will take "reasonable steps" to ensure that children cannot access material classified as X18+ or R18+.

Rather than installing age-verification systems, social media companies may find it easier to simply remove sex worker accounts, the Scarlet Alliance's Gala Vanting said.

"The easiest way for a platform to comply with any regulations around adult content is simply to remove it," she said.

"And we've seen that happen already with all three of the big social media platforms."
Dr Stardust agreed, saying the experience of FOSTA showed that websites are quick to deplatform sex workers when having to comply with regulations around "safe content".

"Unfortunately, this bill is part of a widespread trend towards digital gentrification," she said.

"Governments and private platforms alike have simply put sex in the 'too hard basket' and taken the path of sanitising online space.

"If the bill seeks to 'promote and improve online safety', we must keep asking, 'whose safety'?"

Rate of account deletion has increased
Both Twitter and Facebook say they do not have a policy of widespread deplatforming of sex workers, though Facebook (which owns Instagram) rules out content that "facilitates, encourages or coordinates sexual encounters between adults".

As others have pointed out, that rules out a good amount of what people post on Instagram.

These kind of community standards are vague and applied unevenly, Dr Stardust said.

Facebook and Instagram, for example, have rules against users posting sexually explicit or implicit content (including emojis that, it says, suggest "wetness or erection").

"We routinely disable accounts that break our rules," a Facebook company spokesperson said.

"We try to draw the line in a place that allows people to express themselves while keeping our youngest users safe."

Twitter has a more liberal attitude, allowing "adult content" that is marked "sensitive".

Though it says it has not changed its policy on sex worker content recently, data from Amberly Rothfield, an adult-industry consultant, shows that at the start of this year, Twitter began deleting sex worker accounts at a much higher rate than previously.
From a random sample of 5,000 sex worker accounts, the rate jumped from a handful of deletions a day to many times that number.

"We went from seeing somewhere close to maybe about three to four banned a day to upwards of 36 on a higher-end day," she said.

"It's still at 10-plus a day."

In January alone, 704 of the 5,000 accounts she monitors were deleted.

This data isn't conclusive: Twitter may have been doing some New Year's housekeeping and deleting unused accounts, including accounts not used for sex work.

But the experiences of active Twitter users like Avery suggests that's not the full story.

Avery said Twitter deleted her main professional account of 12,000 followers in February 2020 for using a graphic banner image, even though her banner image had no nudity.

She lost her second account of 5,700 followers last month for having started a new account under the same name. Twitter calls this "evading permanent suspension".

Despite repeatedly begging Twitter for her account back, she's had to start back with a new name and zero followers.

"I need access to social media to make any sort of decent profit," she said.

"Any censorship that covers sex workers in any fashion scares the s**t out of me."