Conditions, control and consent - The evolution of online sex work and the impact of digital platforms on sex workers. Exploring the impact of platformisation of sex work.

"Privacy-enhancing strategies help our community to work safer, establish boundaries, maintain a worklife balance, and navigate the risks posed by the stigma and criminalization of sex work."

https://assets.nationbuilder.com/eswa/pages/255/attachments/original/1665056480/Contested_and_misunderstood_-_the_value_of_privacy_and_data_protection_for_sex_workers_-_DIGITAL-3.pdf?1665056480

Advisor Digital letter regarding mandate Europol - 30-04-2022

The Impact of Online Censorship and Digital Discrimination on Sex Workers - European Sex Workers' Rights Alliance (eswalliance.org)

Some of the key points from ESWA's online meeting on Digital Rights:

• There is an unequal relationship between sex workers and the online platforms they use. Sex workers clearly have less power than the platforms.
• Sex workers use both sex work advertising platforms and social media platforms to advertise and seek clients.
• Sex workers are especially discriminated against on platforms that are not for sex work, such as social media platforms. There is a lot of censorship, which is the blocking or banning of posts. In practice this means, for example, that your account gets blocked. And that in turn affects your income.
• It is unclear how platforms make their decisions. Is this done by a computer or a human? It is also unclear what you can do against it as a sex worker. Can you protest a decision and how?
• On sex worker advertising platforms, power increasingly lies with the clients rather than the sex workers.
• Platforms with customer reviews are especially harmful to sex workers. It gives them less power and it is bad for mental health.
• Online discrimination and censorship also affects sex work organizations. Sex workers are much less able to organize as a result.