Tech’s Censorship of Porn & the Difficulty of Getting Paid

January 26, 2022

Valerie Webber is a public health and porn researcher. She has also been a porn and cam performer, on-and-off for twenty years. Now back online, Webber has found herself “in what is probably the most inhospitable porn landscape we’ve seen in decades.” Her webcam account was suspended for violating the code of conduct; she had “engaged in a fetish category that is cause for immediate account closure.”

A cursory review of the past few months confirms that the circumstances for porn and cam performers like Webber are quite dire when met with the threat of tech censorship:

• In April, Mastercard announced its updated requirements for banks that process payments for people and websites that sell adult content. The result? Anna Iolvine explains that porn creators’ lives have turned upside down; accounts have been wiped, and kinky porn often faces even more barriers in the form of paperwork to avoid getting flagged or taken offline.
• A few months later, OnlyFans almost banned adult content, until it changed course following major backlash.
• Just last month, AVN Media Network shared that it will discontinue monetization features on AVNStars.com and GayVNStars.com due to banking discrimination.

As Webber puts it, “Compliance is so onerous that companies are simply opting out.”

We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation recognize tech’s censorship for what it is: an unconscionable, unjust restriction on our fundamental human right to sexual freedom. We wholeheartedly agree with Webber: “The right for consenting adults to create and consume fetish” and other adult content “is worth fighting for.” So too is the right for such adults to be compensated for their labor.