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posted by janrinok on Sunday April 15 2018, @11:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the as-long-as-it-is-not-encrypted dept.

[A] Melbourne-based company Assembly Four created Switter after its founders learned that social media platforms were either removing sex workers' content or banning their accounts. Without the time or resources to build a whole new network from scratch, the group turned to Mastodon.

The Verge reports:

Sex workers are running out of safe online spaces. Craigslist is no longer displaying personal ads. The controversial classifieds site Backpage, which many escorts used to screen clients, has been seized by the FBI. Adult content is disappearing off Google Drive, and many sex workers say they're being forced off social media. With the news that President Trump has signed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), their options will continue to dwindle — and with it, the ability for many sex workers to pay their bills, let alone do so safely.

Over the past few weeks, sex workers have been turning to an unexpected platform to remain online: the social network Mastodon, under a new instance called "Switter." Melbourne-based company Assembly Four created Switter after its founders learned that social media platforms were either removing sex workers' content or banning their accounts. Without the time or resources to build a whole new network from scratch, the group turned to Mastodon.

Although ostensibly aimed at sex trafficking prevention, FOSTA's reduction of legal protections for websites is having disastrous consequences for sex workers. Faced with the new potential for litigation, many websites are removing any content or avenues that could possibly violate FOSTA. It's disconnecting many of the most vulnerable sex workers from crucial resources.

[...] Switter may offer a temporary salve for the community, yet sex workers say it cannot stand as a last bastion, an end-all be-all answer for their profession. Assembly Four says it's prepared to continue working to make it a safe destination for sex workers, but that they need real change.

"The best-case scenario would be the opposite," says Hunt. "The best-case scenario would be if we didn't need to have safe spaces, if public spaces were somewhere we were accepted."

Fast-Company, Buzzfeed, Vice and Techdirt have related stories.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @04:51PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @04:51PM (#667307)

    It's so much better to use technology to defeat censorship than it is to argue about it. This way we can leave the tyrants behind to wallow in their sorrow. Whenever we hear about the authorities blocking a service anywhere on the globe, let's see some good news about how people get around the blockage. We need to rub the gov/corp's nose in their own shit. Let's use our great powers to take away the advantage, not further it.

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  • (Score: 2) by leftover on Sunday April 15 2018, @06:03PM

    by leftover (2448) on Sunday April 15 2018, @06:03PM (#667334)

    A truly insightful constructive comment and ./me freshly out of mod points.

    --
    Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @08:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @08:21PM (#667374)

    Soon, that will be restricted knowledge (it already is in some parts of the world.. talking about how, is just as bad as doing it.. )

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @02:26AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @02:26AM (#667467)

    Let's use our great powers to take away the advantage, not further it.

    "With great power comes great . . ." Oh, my, it's a libertarian rent-a-boy! They are so cute when they are cyber-angry!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @01:17PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @01:17PM (#667609)

    Using tech instead of arguing means you'll always lose. Tech becomes illegal or restricted, goes underground, and that community slowly dies as fewer and fewer new members join and society becomes in denial about the issue. Arguing means whatever it was becomes legal, then you can use tech to advance it.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @09:21PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16 2018, @09:21PM (#667803)

      False dichotomy. You need to argue while also flagrantly ignoring unjust laws. If people can easily violate the law, then that gives you even more ammo since you can argue that it is useless as well as unjust.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 17 2018, @08:24PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 17 2018, @08:24PM (#668286)

      No, the only discussion needed is over the best technology to make censorship impractical/impossible. Something that can't be restricted in any way. Statutory regulation is merely something to be circumvented, don't care how it's done, just that it gets done in some fashion that can't be controlled by fascist authoritarians.