Patreon Moves to Restrict Adult Content

In yet another social and cultural move towards sex work discrimination, Endgadget reported on Monday 23 October 2017 that crowdfunding giant Patreon.com has updated its privacy policy to prohibit the selling of webcam sessions, as well as the financing of erotic movies.

Patreon is a membership platform that provides business tools for creators to run subscription content services. It also provides ways for artists, writers, musicians, and more to build relationships with their community and offer exclusive experiences to their subscribers, or “patrons.” In return, artists can receive funding directly from their patrons on a recurring or per work basis – until now.

The site recently changed their terms of service to exclude a specific class of artists — you. According to Endgadget, Patreon previously allowed creators in the adult space utilize their platform. The change to the site’s conduct policies, published 17 October 2017, brings that to a pretty hard stop though.

Endgadget stated: “Patreon has always been against pornography, but the site’s previous content policy covered the matter in very broad-brush terms. Creators were asked to flag their content as not safe for work, but otherwise there was a wide latitude as to the material published. Patreon’s corporate position was that the company recognized the need for art to depict ‘nudity and sexual expression.’”

“The distinction it drew, at the time, was that it was happy to turn a blind eye to the sort of content you’d find in an R-rated movie, but not porn…” Endgarget reported. “Of course, it’s very hard to determine what is pornography and what is artistic, and the goalposts are shifting on a near-daily basis.”

For content that was illegal — depictions of incest, bestiality, underage persons, etc – Patreon was obviously and rightfully quick to jettison. This current policy change though is new. Patreon’s crackdown seems to block apparently legitimate activity like cam shows (including non-nude shows) and “mainstream” sessions, as well as websites that do not include illegal content.

Though this is incredibly frustrating, for many, this Patreon thing was just another shoe that was inevitably going to drop.

Writer Chelsea Summers tweeted the following anecdote and reaction to Patreon’s policy change:

I told her that I was reticent to go all in on Patreon because my content was going to be occasionally “adult” and thus unsearchable.

— ? hellsee ghoul ? (@chelseagsummers) October 23, 2017

So, yeah, you do you, Patreon, and I and my adult beliefs that adults can choose what to spend their adult money on will be over here. pic.twitter.com/DsvBMWNI5Y

— ? hellsee ghoul ? (@chelseagsummers) October 23, 2017

Summers’ “You do you, Boo” stance is strong and perfect, but that doesn’t make the “yet again” quality of Patreon’s policy change any less stinging or discriminatory.

Couple structural sex work discrimination with views like the following fine sentiments from @SavinTheBees, which was just one of many reactions of its type, and it’s difficult to not get frustrated:

Finally. Get rid of these soft core eProstitutes cosplayers and help people who actually need Patreon thrive like artists, musicians etc. pic.twitter.com/Dj8f5fu2cT

— Bardock Obama ? (@SavinTheBees) October 23, 2017

However!

Like many great technological developments in human history, ingenuity is born of necessesity – often the necessity of members of the adult entertainment industry fighting discrimination and looking to provide consumers with access to their products. So, Patreon, we will all be over here – ready to give business to the non-discriminatory crowdfunding platform a member of the community inevitably develops.

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Did Patreon’s policy change impact you? Email me, and tell me what happened.