Last week OnlyFans announced some changes to it's acceptable content policies that caused a bit of a stir online.
In short, OnlyFans announced that while nudity would continue to be permitted, other depictions of sexual conduct would be prohibited.
There are many reasons for this change. I feel that business is an ever changing landscape, and that each business must make choices that ensure its survival. So, I don't fault OnlyFans for making this change. They likely had pressure to do so from outside sources such as payment processors.
However, this is just the latest in a long string of apparently hypocritical policy changes on the part of platforms that built their success on the backs of adult content creators switching gears and leaving creators with no platform, no reach, and no income.
There are plenty of others who have posted online about the long history of this kind of thing happening on user-generated content platforms. But I want to focus in on a very narrow part of the discussion, and how crypto fixes the problem.
LGBTQ People Experience Additional Financial Harm
When a platform like OnlyFans (or Porn Hub, or Tumblr, or whatever), changes their acceptable content policies, LGBTQ people are disproportionately harmed.
This isn't because of an intentional attack on them, necessarily. But rather there are opportunities that exist in content creation and sex work that particularly benefit LGBTQ people because they experience LACK of opportunity elsewhere.
LGBTQ people and transgender people in particular experience higher rates of poverty relative to the general population. This is because of safety issues, culturally pervasive oppression, and in many instances a lack of legal protections to ensure a fair employment environment.
Becoming an adult content creator or sex worker provides an opportunity to provide a valuable and desired service and receive compensation for it.
In most cases, a sex worker is able to, with hard work and creativity, be in charge of their income instead of being at the whim of an employer or an unsafe work environment. This is powerful. And this is something that many creators on platforms like OnlyFans who aren't members of marginalized communities don't have to worry about as much.
Sex Work Can Be Empowering
For many folks the process of creating content and engaging in sex work can be an empowering and affirming part of their relationship with themselves and their bodies.
The existence of platforms to express oneself sexually can be very affirming and empowering to LGBTQ people, especially transgender people.
In many cases these platforms also provide an opportunity for a person to create a safe place for themselves to be themselves online. This is tremendously valuable. And again, this isn't as much of a consideration for other folks as it is for LGBTQ people.
Crypto Fixes This
So, when a platform like OnlyFans changes its policies, it's not just a matter of, "Oh, let's find a new place to post nudes." It's a serious change to the foundation of a person's wellbeing.
Unfortunately, anytime that foundation rests on the existence of a business or organization that isn't owned or influenced by the individual, this kind of thing is inevitable.
But crypto fixes the problem.
Content creation platforms built on blockchains are far more censorship resistant. Whether it's censorship in the form of shadowbans or account deletion, or government level censorship, blockchain is far more resistant. This gives the piece of mind necessary to really devote oneself to adding value to the platform. Its continued existence is much easier to expect.
Crypto also solves the payment processor problem.
I've been involved in the adult side of the internet to some degree, either as a marketer, web designer, and as a customer (and even at one time attempted content creation) for a long-ish time in internet terms.
The whims of payment processors have ALWAYS been a thing that any adult business has had to navigate. If payment can happen in crypto without 3rd party processors, income streams are far more stable and resilient as well.
And this doesn't even scratch the surface of new streams of income from NFTs that some are starting to explore.
LGBTQ People NEED Crypto
This is just one more example of how many of the issues that impact LGBTQ people are fixed by crypto. It's only a matter of time before someone comes up with a real blockchain based competitor to sites like OnlyFans. And when they do, I'll be cheering their success every step of the way. The metaverse is going to be queer as fuck.