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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: 2) by terrab0t on Monday April 16 2018, @11:52AM

    by terrab0t (4674) on Monday April 16 2018, @11:52AM (#667586)

    The problem is that we’ve become focused on single entities and platforms instead of protocols.

    From the linked article on Mastodon [theverge.com]:

    Rochko envisioned something more like email, or RSS: a distributed system that lets you send public messages to anyone who follows you on the service.

    If a major email service provider started censoring emails or doing stupid things with its interface, email wouldn’t die. People would ditch that email provider for one that’s not run by idiots. The same goes for RSS. I still use both actively.

    Mastodon has a main hub run by the creator, but anyone can setup their own Mastodon server and send and receive messages through it. Ideally, lots of independent Mastodon instances will spring up just like email and IRC servers. Then there won’t be one major organization that can fail.

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