Social Media’s Long, Pointless War Against Online Sex

FROM The moment people started to get bad with Johannes Gutenberg’s new printing pressMass communication technologies have been widely adopted because of the explicit sexual content. However, with every advancement in the method, there was always a backlash. Moral panic hereThen there’s the A book is burning there, the persistent, unvarnished threat of mass violence with firearms—with the aim of suppressing this expression. You can be sure that their efforts will end in vain, dear reader, after I’ve seen the results of a Google search for “sexually explicit typography”.

But that hasn’t stopped social media companies, advertisers and government regulators from working to eliminate sex-related material from the World Wide Web. Below is an excerpt from her new book. How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex: An Unexpected HistoryMotherboardSamantha Cole, Senior Editor, discusses why Facebook and Instagram have suppressed slow sexist discourse online over 15 years.

Adapted from How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex: An Unexpected HistorySamantha Cole Workman Publishing © 2022

How is Internet sex suppression possible?

The power structure for posting adult content online has been completely altered by algorithmic and human censorship. And this has come to light as independent sex workers struggle to avoid being kicked off sites like Instagram or Twitter for simply existing as people — while big companies like Brazzers, which feature full nudity, have no problem maintaining their accounts.

Facebook’s policies regarding sex and nudity, despite its origins as Mark Zuckerberg’s Hot-or Not rating system for Harvard women, are extremely strict. Over the years, it has gone through many evolutions and reforms, but in 2022, prohibited content includes (but is not limited to) “real nude adults,” “sexual contact,” and a wide range of things that could involve sexual intercourse “even when contact is not directly visible” or “the presence of by-products of sexual activity.” Nudity in art is supposedly allowed, but artists and illustrators still fight bans and objectionable posts all the time.

Facebook will not tolerate any “sexual temptation”. This includes pornography and discussions of erotic circumstances, as well as any sexual emoji like peaches and eggplants and sexual slang.

These rules also apply Instagram, the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook. These networks, which are the number one and two social networks in America, determine how much sexual material the Internet sees and interacts.

In older, archived versions of Facebook’s terms of use, gender was never mentioned — but the Member Conduct Guidelines prohibited “any content that we consider harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, vulgar, obscene, hateful, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable.” Facebook has legal flexibility to block any content it chooses.

As recently as 2007, the platform has been more open to sexual discourse. It has listed sexuality as an area of interest and created over 500 groups for discussion on the topic. The platform’s early embrace of sex was controversial. Andrew Cuomo, the then-New York Attorney General, conducted a Facebook sting where a detective disguised himself as a teenager to catch child predators.

As early as 2008, female breast implants—specifically, nipples—began to be banned. Halo violated its policy regarding “obscene pornographic or sexually explicit material.” A few women protested the decision to allow their breastfeeds in front the Palo Alto office of Halo in December 2008. It was Saturday and no CEO was there.

Facebook has placed sexual work in the prohibited content category that depicts “sexualexploitation” since 2018. It states that it bans all depictions and references to “sexual services” including[ing] Prostitution, escort services, sexual massages, and graphic sexuality.”

A lot of this content is prohibited in the area of health and wellbeing education.

Dr. Timaree Schmit, a sex educator, logged onto Facebook in 2018 to check out her SEXx Interactive page. She also runs an annual sex education conference. A notification appeared from Facebook: she and several other administrators of the page were banned from the entire platform for thirty days, and the page was deleted, because the “offensive photo” had violated the platform’s community standards. The image in question was the SEXx word in large letters on a dark background.

These are just a few examples of what you can do, and they don’t stop at Facebook. Google AdWords banned “graphic sexual acts with intent to arouse, including sexual acts such as masturbation” in 2014. Predictive text for Android keyboards banned anything remotely sexual, including the words “panty,” “braless,” and “ Tampax,” “lactation,” “preggers,” “uterus,” and “STI” from the AutoComplete Dictionary. Chromecast and Google Play do not allow porn. Starbucks Wi-Fi is not allowed to be used for accessing adult sites. In 2018, Google Drive was unable to allow users to download files or documents that contained adult content. Crowdfunding site Patreon bans porn that features real people. In 2018, Stripe was accused of not being sex-friendly by its payment processor. Many of these actions follow FOSTA/SESTA.

This is not an exhaustive list. These stories are not the only ones. Many others include those where sex workers, journalists, and sexual educators are censored from platforms that allow them to cross these ever-moving imaginary lines.

These policies have changed over the years and have been inconsistently applied to users, often with a vague logic. However, there is one thing that has been consistent across platforms: Images and content from Black and Indigenous women, as also queer and trans people, sex workers and fat women, are the most vulnerable to discrimination on the platform. People who are labeled “sexually explicit” or pushed off platforms can have self-esteem problems, isolation, and even suicidal thoughts.

“I’m tired of feeling like something is wrong with my body. It’s not okay to look at what I’m doing,” said Instagram influencer Anna Constantopoulos, after closing her account and deleting posts several times. Instagram moderators kissed her pictures of her in bikini and underwear, while other influencers’ posts lingered in liking: “It starts to feel like shit about yourself.”

People still display their full selves or at least a part of themselves on Facebook accounts. People can still live and work on the Internet without being censored about their sexuality – unless it is your life and work.