THE SEX INDUSTRY & SOCIAL MEDIA

It seems very strange to me, but social media and the sex industry have a bizarre and stressful relationship. Basically social media companies want to attract the maximum number of followers, users, whatever term they might use. And with the exception of Facebook, which is mainly now used by baby boomers and soon to be pensioners and will probably cease to be a force in the next decade – they also want to be seen as up to date and relevant. And yet they all – and I mean all – hate the sex industry, escorts, porn stars, escort agencies and everything relating to them with a passion. Maybe it is because all the major social media companies, and tech companies in general, are started by Americans, owned by Americans, listed on American stock exchanges and run by Americans.

And, let us face it, the United States has a pretty freaking weird attitude toward sex and the sex industry in general. They produce more porn than anyone else in the world, but prostitution is pretty much uniformly illegal. And NEVER cross state lines as a working escort because then any issues instantly become federal. And you are, as they say, screwed. And not in a good way. On one has ever been able to explain to me why the whole of the United States takes the approach they do to prostitution. The nearest I get is “oh we were founded by puritans”. Right – so did the puritans have a big thing about prostitution being bad while porn is terrific and OK? Did they hang out in Salem and read risqué novels to each other while killing teenage girls for masturbating? Probably not.

There is a move in the industry now to trying to move away from United States software suppliers and to use apps and sites owned by almost anyone else. So Proton mail, which is owned, run and hosted in Switzerland is now a favourite among professional sex workers, thinking that it will provide them with greater security and stability than things such as gmail, which is operated by Google based out of Menlo Park California. And it will do all that, but only if you take the option of a .ch email address rather than a .com, which is ultimately under the jurisdiction of the United States. The Devil is in the detail.