She thought it was important to gather some statistical data to be able to prove, on a broader scale, what she already knew was happening. “There are so few researchers that devote their resources towards capturing evidence of how policy directly affects sex workers' lives,” she says.
Webber was just finishing up her PhD and thought “I have this small window where I can still avail of what my institution has to offer, so I better do this now!" She channeled her frustration into an op-ed and the study. “These policies and terms of service – which are all supposedly about ensuring safety – make us so unsafe, so I hope this study can be useful for anyone advocating for sex worker rights.”
The goals of Webber’s research were twofold: to measure the impact of Mastercard’s policy on online sex workers in more quantifiable terms, and to investigate if some kinds of performers and some kinds of content are being disproportionately affected. “Sex workers and other sex-related businesses face discrimination from many online platforms. This includes social media and online services. It also includes financial services like banks, credit card associations, crowdfunding applications, and payment platforms. These products are essential utilities. When they deny services to sex workers it has devastating consequences on our lives,” she wrote.
Read: Defying Social Media Censorship: My TongueTok ExperimentSome of the key highlights of Webber’s study:
Respondents were primarily from the U.S. (70%), followed by Canada (10%).
Sixty-eight percent of respondents identified as white.
When it came to gender, cis women (60%) led in responses, followed by non-binary/pangender/gender queer people (20%), and cis men (14%).
Two-thirds identified as queer/bisexual/pansexual/lesbian/gay.
Sixty-eight percent of respondents were 25-39 years old.
When it came to platforms, social media (88%), fan site (82%), and clips (75%) were used the most.
Ninety percent of respondents reported suffering at least one detrimental impact as a result of Mastercard’s policy. Nearly half of respondents (49%) suffered 4-6 different detrimental impacts.
“When platforms have been denied to sex workers and adult content creators for reasons that people might think are good or noble – like a sincere desire to combat human trafficking or revenge porn – the end result has been to harm the very communities we're trying to protect,” says Angie Rowntree, the director and founder of ethical porn site Sssh.com. “It hurts members of marginalized communities even more, because there are so few resources and so little support available to them, to begin with, so denying them online resources removes some of the only truly accessible, affordable tools and support structures they have at their disposal.”
“It's time we started looking at sex work the way we do other work and focus on making it safer and healthier for sex workers, rather than looking at it as a law enforcement issue and endlessly punishing the same people the government professes it's trying to protect from exploitation,” says Rowntree.
Read: How Sex Workers are Providing Sex Education
Sex workers are stigmatized, marginalized, and criminalized – they’re also resilient and resourceful. The OnlyFans debacle taught Banks, and other models, to diversify to other platforms and have a Plan B. “Surely, it will happen again,” she says. “When it does, I’m confident we will survive.”
Read the entire The Impact of Mastercard’s Adult Content Policy on Adult Content Creators study here. Follow Dr. Valerie Webber on Twitter here.
