Social Media allows you to reach so many people that you just couldn't with traditional campaigning, and can be a great tool to spread your message, but in recent months and years it has become harder to spread a sex positive message. Why is that?
A couple of weeks ago, the fantastic volunteer sex and relationships education organisation Sexplain had their Instagram account suspended with very little explanation. They have been featured in places like The Guardian and Stylist Magazine; partnered with schools, universities, and youth organisations; as well as run an annual event for sex educators to learn and share (which I have attended both times it's been held ... before you know what happened). Their Instagram account is full of positivity, information, and joy, and in no way breaks the community guidelines - however loosely interpreted - not least because even the drawings used in place of real human body parts are hardly what one could call sexual, let alone sexually explicit.
After drawing attention to the account suspension on rival social media platform Twitter - and what must have been dozens, or even hundreds, of items of feedback from individuals in the sex positive community, including yours truly, sent to Instagram telling them they have got this badly wrong - Sexplain finally got their account reinstated a few days later (on National Orgasm Day, no less).
This, unfortunately, is a growing trend on social media platforms. There are many reasons for this, but two stick out to me;
1 - There is an increasing mobilisation of conservative (with a small c) parents against sex positive and other liberal organisations and individuals, who flag social media accounts they find objectionable and then share them with like minded people who do the same.
2 - Governments are taking social media companies to task over "harmful" content on their platforms, resulting in the lowering of the bar for the removal of content or banning of users.
The two together means that some misguided individuals have increased power to get content removed from social media that they don't agree with, and if they group together the more malevolent ones can trick moderation bots into automatically suspending accounts ...
Because governments want social media companies to take down content quickly when it's brought to their attention, they operate automatic moderation tools where if an account or post is reported enough times within a short period, that content is made unavailable on the platform without human interaction. This is a good thing in the main. With the sheer amount of content uploaded to social media every second, the platform cannot possibly review everything, and nor do they want to because that would make them liable for everything published however long it was visible for. The problem is the system can be gamed by big enough groups of people trying to disrupt what they see as the destruction of society as they know it.
Caught in the crossfire are these great sex positive organisations, and when that happens they almost always get reinstated, but imagine if you were an individual who produces sex positive content and you relied on social media to communicate with your audience, and maybe you've just made it your job! Just in the last month I've seen two sex positive people and educators I follow receive warnings for "sexually explicit material" on Instagram, and the offending posts removed. One recently went freelance, so although this a minor issue on its own, there are potential problems coming further down the line if more posts are flagged in this way.
This is a problem that needs solving. Whilst I would always advise anyone trying to make a living out of social media to avoid keeping all their eggs in one basket, inevitably there will be a platform that resonates more with their audience than others. Living with the threat of that platform deleting your account permanently is troubling. To be fair to social media companies, it's hard being a moral arbiter for something so subjective - however much you and I think it's clear what is right and wrong - and if humans make errors, what chance have the computers got?
For now at least, all of us in the sex positive community have to walk the tightrope of continuing to use social media to get our message out, but also not have everything we've got come crashing down because of stepping over a line that keeps being moved by governments and others, depending on where the moral tide is at the moment. The following saying seems to be appropriate here;
Be good, and if you can't be good, be lucky!
Andy x
After drawing attention to the account suspension on rival social media platform Twitter - and what must have been dozens, or even hundreds, of items of feedback from individuals in the sex positive community, including yours truly, sent to Instagram telling them they have got this badly wrong - Sexplain finally got their account reinstated a few days later (on National Orgasm Day, no less).
This, unfortunately, is a growing trend on social media platforms. There are many reasons for this, but two stick out to me;
1 - There is an increasing mobilisation of conservative (with a small c) parents against sex positive and other liberal organisations and individuals, who flag social media accounts they find objectionable and then share them with like minded people who do the same.
2 - Governments are taking social media companies to task over "harmful" content on their platforms, resulting in the lowering of the bar for the removal of content or banning of users.
The two together means that some misguided individuals have increased power to get content removed from social media that they don't agree with, and if they group together the more malevolent ones can trick moderation bots into automatically suspending accounts ...
Because governments want social media companies to take down content quickly when it's brought to their attention, they operate automatic moderation tools where if an account or post is reported enough times within a short period, that content is made unavailable on the platform without human interaction. This is a good thing in the main. With the sheer amount of content uploaded to social media every second, the platform cannot possibly review everything, and nor do they want to because that would make them liable for everything published however long it was visible for. The problem is the system can be gamed by big enough groups of people trying to disrupt what they see as the destruction of society as they know it.
Caught in the crossfire are these great sex positive organisations, and when that happens they almost always get reinstated, but imagine if you were an individual who produces sex positive content and you relied on social media to communicate with your audience, and maybe you've just made it your job! Just in the last month I've seen two sex positive people and educators I follow receive warnings for "sexually explicit material" on Instagram, and the offending posts removed. One recently went freelance, so although this a minor issue on its own, there are potential problems coming further down the line if more posts are flagged in this way.
This is a problem that needs solving. Whilst I would always advise anyone trying to make a living out of social media to avoid keeping all their eggs in one basket, inevitably there will be a platform that resonates more with their audience than others. Living with the threat of that platform deleting your account permanently is troubling. To be fair to social media companies, it's hard being a moral arbiter for something so subjective - however much you and I think it's clear what is right and wrong - and if humans make errors, what chance have the computers got?
For now at least, all of us in the sex positive community have to walk the tightrope of continuing to use social media to get our message out, but also not have everything we've got come crashing down because of stepping over a line that keeps being moved by governments and others, depending on where the moral tide is at the moment. The following saying seems to be appropriate here;
Be good, and if you can't be good, be lucky!
Andy x
