LOS ANGELES — The Daily Beast has published an editorial by PASS board chair, cam performer and health researcher Valerie Webber about the personal toll of tech censorship on her life, career and livelihood.
Webber's editorial was triggered by the suspension of her cam account for allegedly “violating the code of conduct” by engaging “in a fetish category that is cause for immediate account closure.”
Webber had taken a camming hiatus from around 2014 until recently, and noticed the online adult environment had changed in the years she had been away from sex work while working on her PhD.
“Now that I’m finishing my degree and my funding has run out,” she wrote, “I’ve found myself back online in what is probably the most inhospitable porn landscape we’ve seen in decades.”
When her camming platform suspended her account, she received “no explanation, no opportunity for correction, no word about what would happen to [her] outstanding pay. There is a code of conduct ... but the rules are vague. It’s hard to know what acts or topics of discussion might trigger a violation, and there’s no boss down the hall to have a chat with.”
According to Webber, a minefield of unclear payment processing regulation and seemingly arbitrary enforcement results in platforms opaquely passing the impact of those vague rules along to a “disposable” worker base — which directly translates into “ominous restrictions on sexual freedom.”
“Compliance is so onerous that companies are simply opting out,” she wrote. “Platforms are moderating their workers with an increasingly heavy hand, so the scope of sexual topics we have to avoid is getting broader. Platforms have also passed the task of moderation down to us, asking that we flag and report clients who request shows that might violate the rules, or risk being punished for complicity.”
"Not only does this mean I stand to make less money," Webber concluded, "I’m also being asked to police my clientele and their desires.”
To read Valerie Webber’s “Tech’s Harsh Censorship of Porn Is Hitting Very Close to Home,” visit TheDailyBeast.com.
