sex workers

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  • Abstract image of a tulip in the form of a starry sky or space, consisting of points, lines, and shapes in the form of tree, stars and the universe. Vector business

    Link-sharing service Linktree suddenly blocks sex workers

    Yet another service has kicked sex workers off its platform.

    Mariella Moon
    01.15.2022
  • Illustration by Koren Shadmi for Engadget

    Your online activity is now effectively a social ‘credit score’

    Kaylen Ward's Twitter fundraiser for the Australian bushfire relief has ended. The Los Angeles-based model said she raised $1 million (by comparison Jeff Bezos donated $690,000). At the start of Ms. Ward's successful donation drive she had three Instagram accounts — none of which were part of the campaign.

    Violet Blue
    01.17.2020
  • Wiktor Szymanowicz/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

    Democrats want to study FOSTA-SESTA's impact on sex workers online

    If you're concerned that FOSTA-SESTA seems built more to kick sex workers offline than to fight sex trafficking, you're not alone. House representatives and senators have introduced the Safe Sex Workers Study Act, a bill that would analyze the impact of FOSTA-SESTA on the health and safety of sex workers and help Congress make "informed" decisions. The politicians are concerned that banning sites from the "promotion of prostitution" only served to hurt the consensual sex industry by shutting down resources where workers could screen customers, set limits and discuss issues with their peers. This not only increased the chances for violence and health issues, but may have thwarted the very purpose of FOSTA-SESTA by pushing sex traffickers further underground.

    Jon Fingas
    12.17.2019
  • Sex Worker Alliance: GTA normalizes violence against sex workers

    On this fifth annual "International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers," we remind you to tip -- but not to kill -- your service providers. According to The Toronto Sun, Anastasia Kuzyk of the Sex Workers' Alliance of Toronto believes that games like Grand Theft Auto feed into the "subculture of allowing the violence to continue," and that violence "against sex workers should not be normalized, but it is." Although she doesn't mention GTA by name in the quote, it's the only well-known game we can think of that lets you "run down prostitutes and kill them and beat them up and take their money."Kuzyk has cause for concern, as 171 female sex workers (no stats on men given) were killed between '91 and '04 in Toronto. This is also not the first time in recent memory that GTA has received flak from sex worker advocates, though there's no word yet on whether GTA IV will allow for the ironically health-enhancing activity of picking up a prostitute like in other installments in the series. So, Happy International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers everyone! Boy, that's a mouthful.[Via GamePolitics]