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[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.
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.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Sunday April 15 2018, @12:49PM (4 children)
Alas, humans aren't rational, and that goes double for elected officials.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Sunday April 15 2018, @01:01PM
Well, I can agree with this one, but then... it's irrational to speak of "reasons"** while letting rationality aside, is it not?
I mean, look... you speak of "method to his madness" not "reasons from the depth of his madness".
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** as in in "reason to banish sex-workers"
I'm sorry, I an't agree with this. Those officials may have started their career as humans, but by the time they get elected, they metamorphose in sorta lizard people.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by KiloByte on Sunday April 15 2018, @01:10PM (2 children)
Actually, elected officials are usually rational. They are hard at work seeking campaign donations, do research wrt which action will get them re-elected no matter how harmful for the society it really is, and so on.
Their goals just don't align with yours, nor with their job description.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Sunday April 15 2018, @01:16PM (1 child)
An ability to rationalize or justify is not, in itself, a sign of a rational being, though. Self-preservation is as effective in slugs as in those in power..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday April 15 2018, @01:57PM
Having different interests is not an ability to rationalize. Even rational beings will have conflicts of interest.