Why Elon Musk should protect porn stars on Twitter

Elon Musk’s will-he-or-not-he Twitter buy may have seeped into the Wall Street version of reality television, and it was recently eclipsed by the news that he reportedly hush money a flight attendant of $250,000 after she had accused him of sexual misconduct, but his concerns about free speech on social media have sparked valuable debate. Critics argue he’s setting the stage for a troll free for all, while others celebrate Musk for possibly ushering in a new golden age of free speech. Throughout the debate, we’ve heard from everyone from Taylor Lorenz to Ben Shapiro, but we haven’t heard from one of the most silenced groups on social media: pornstars.

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and other social media platforms censor us every day. Instagram seems to boot porn actors on a whim. Every girl in porn valley knows someone who lost their TikTok for posting a bikini pic, even though seemingly every coed in Arizona can show her belly button and shake her ass all she wants. Since I only create porn, I can only speak to the experiences of pornographers. Personally, I know I don’t show up when people type my name on Twitter. One can argue all day whether that’s “shadow ban,” but the term doesn’t matter. Fact: Silicon Valley censors adult performers, period.

Censorship harms our ability to support ourselves. When a pornographer loses their social media account, they lose the ability to promote themselves. If they can’t advertise, they can’t sell content. If they can’t sell content, they can’t make money. If they can’t make money, they can’t pay their mortgages, utility bills, etc. Sure, nobody wants to hear about our fight—they just want to jerk off to our satisfaction—but our issues matter. And right now we have a lot of problems. OnlyFans, the main source of income for many performers, could ban us at any second.

Evangelicals, liberals and everyone else around the world is trying to take down MindGeek and other porn conglomerates that pay performers to do our work. The worst thing is that Twitter is the last social media platform that allows us to post adult footage as an ad. Other tech giants regulate us on safe-for-work ads even if our accounts are set to 18+ — that is, if they let us post at all. Adult movies used to be advertised in adult video stores, but nobody buys DVDs anymore. Social media is all we have – especially when it comes to the individual performer and not a porn giant.

If Musk, or whoever ends up owning Twitter, wants to protect free speech, they need to anchor the speech of the porn club that no one wants to hear from, even if they disagree with our profession. The fact of the matter is, Porn Valley cried about free speech long before libertarian Silicon Valley did. Between running for president and converting to evangelism, Hustler founder Larry Flynt filed and defended numerous lawsuits in the 1970s and 1980s. These courtroom dramas ended up protecting our right to post adult content, even if it offended local preachers. Flynt’s legal activism also ended with the Supreme Court protecting the speech of comedians and even rights he loathed. Flynt liked it that way; he believed that freedom of expression should protect Everyoneeven the ones he hated.

Musk wants to be Mr. Free Speech — and we could use a free speech hero in the age of censorship. Here are three steps Musk and company should take on Twitter to protect the voices of pornographers and, in turn, the voices of all Twitter users:

AGE VERIFICATION

Social media sites claim they must ban adult content to protect children from viewing our footage. Well, adult performers don’t want underage people to see our work. It’s not called adult entertainment for nothing! If Twitter forced all users to verify their age by uploading ID documents, their algorithms could block minors from seeing our work. Age verification would free social media of their excuse to censor us. We could post pictures of legal, consenting adults having fun together and users could search our names. Anyone could jerk off and/or promote porn in peace.

PUSH THE BORDERLINE WITH LEGALITY

Right now, Mastercard and other payment processors censor porn more than the government. Mastercard sets policies on what porn they accept payment for, and they prohibit us from selling certain videos, even if they’re legal content (e.g. you can’t use your Mastercard to buy a video where a whole fist goes up my ass ). Since Twitter doesn’t sell videos, the platform should draw the line of legality and allow us to post any First Amendment pornography. With the legality rule, Twitter could suspend someone for promoting illegal drug sales, but they could allow pornographers to post legal adult content that they can’t post on paid sites. It would make Twitter America’s haven for free speech and set an example that Twitter protects the opinions of all users, including those with whom you may disagree.

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Disinformation activists argue that deplatforming works because it forces bad fringe actors out of public life; However, we all know that social media giants have relied on their content rules to ban legal pornographers from the platform. The whole idea of ​​deplatforming goes against the spirit of free speech: free speech protects the speech of everyone, including those you despise. And yes, I know the anti-disinformation crowd will write to me: “Twitter is a private company! They can do whatever they want! The First Amendment just protects you from being censored by the FBI!” But we all know that free speech is also an old-school American value that supports free speech. When you talk about corporations having the right to ban people, you sound like someone who supports the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that says governed corporations have rights like humans and can use dark money to fund as many political campaigns as they like you want to. However, Musk and co should only boot people off the platform if they commit a crime on Twitter.

So far, Musk has pushed for an end to deplatforming and discussed identity verification. He hasn’t mentioned porn yet, but if he’s serious about free speech, he needs to protect the controversial, stigmatized community of pornographers who create all the content people use to masturbate. After all, pornographers are the foundation of the First Amendment Musk loves so much. So it’s about time someone protected our freedom of speech!