A potentially big change is coming to Twitter, one that’s been years in the making. The Washington Post reported this morning that Elon Musk, Twitter’s new daddy, is working on a feature that will allow creators to charge for video content.
Twitter is working on a feature to allow people to post videos and then charge users to view them, with adult content as a possibility.
Mock ups of the new feature viewed by the Post resemble the OnlyFans model of locked content that users can pay to see https://t.co/XjpIw4BUVB
— Hamza Shaban (@hshaban) November 2, 2022
Which is potentially good news for sex workers, especially after last year’s OnlyFans kerfuffle:
SEX WORKERS. Thread:
Yes, Twitter is likely going to allow payments for adult content soon
They’ve been working on this for some time, but Musk seems like he’s going to push it through
Ppl seem shocked but if you have been following me you likely aren’t https://t.co/VL3yBQIwHu
— Ashley Lake (@AshleyLatke) November 2, 2022
I’ve been pushing writers to cover this, but for the most part they’ve ignored the possibility
Now many people are acting like this is a random move, or even terrible and will reduce quality of the site
However adult payments are a great idea, sex workers should be compensated https://t.co/hfn1qz2pc3
— Ashley Lake (@AshleyLatke) November 2, 2022
According to sex worker Ashley Lake, the change could potentially transform how sex workers make money online. The switch will (hopefully) take some of the power away from business models like OnlyFans and put some of it back into the hands of individuals.
this is actually insanely good news
you’d have to be following my threads pretty close to catch it, but i mentioned feeling mastercard/comcast/aws pressure is amping up because antis didn’t want twitter to follow onlyfans – but it looks like twitter isn’t blinking. great news. https://t.co/ERzLju9EAz
— Ashley Lake (@AshleyLatke) June 7, 2021
Instead of wiping adult content from the site in a bid to get bigger advertisers, this move could help sex workers monetize their presence on the site rather than depending on third party platforms.
If they pull this off, it’s huge and not just for twitter. It will change the entire landscape for the internet and show “the OnlyFans model” is a way forward instead of banning sexuality
Musk is in a position to push this through due to his immense personal wealth https://t.co/LEkcp0KDoc
— Ashley Lake (@AshleyLatke) November 2, 2022
Even more exciting is the possibility of using Stripe on Twitter, a popular financial processing platform that has traditionally not been friendly to sex workers:
VERY notable here, the mock-ups include Stripe which is not a payment processor that normally allows sex work
As I’ve noted before, Musk may be in the unique position to ram through a deal due to his prior ownership of PayPal, and all his direct fintech connections pic.twitter.com/4fjvVPvsXE
— Ashley Lake (@AshleyLatke) November 2, 2022
While Twitter is still very much in a transitional moment during the pending Musk takeover, changes like these could be potentially helpful for individual creators, including sex workers.
Hey Tech writers!
How come none of your thinkpieces abt “Elon needs advertisers” mention OnlyFans, which has HUGE income & literally no ads?
Twitter mocked up adult payments previously. Isn’t it relevant? They could pull an OF, not need ads at all!
Cc @asilbwrites @mmasnick https://t.co/7tNbGrCGKf
— Ashley Lake (@AshleyLatke) October 29, 2022
In Musk’s search for a more sustainable monetization platform, he might have just made an accidental difference in the way sex workers are paid (and charged by credit card companies) for their work:
Banks are able to charge insanely high rates on sex work just due to an absolutely grift that takes advantage of stigma and previous government pressure
If Musk somehow breaks this stranglehold it could be good for sex workers on every site, so let’s hope it’s true https://t.co/MoCw9wp7Bn
— Ashley Lake (@AshleyLatke) November 2, 2022
That said, we’re still dealing with Elon Musk, so let’s not get too excited:
I’m glad to see that he has met with some civil rights leaders. It just does not surprise me at all that once again trans folks and sex workers, who are among the most disproportionately impacted by content moderation, are once again not at the table
— Evan Greer (@evan_greer) November 2, 2022
This move could help cis sex workers while still subjecting trans and nonbinary sex workers to hate on the platform, which famously has not done a fantastic job of protecting its most vulnerable users from hate speech and harassment.
While Tumblr is just getting back into the NSFW game, they’re still not allowing monetization, which means that individual creators could have their work stolen and recirculated without seeing a dime:
but can sex workers post links to their onlyfans on tumblr, or will they get banned for doing so? @ashleylatke raised to me the other day the possibility that allowing NSFW content, but NOT allowing its monetisation just encourages stealing/reposting of paid adult content. https://t.co/Ps8Z2LT2P2
— Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) (@lizthegrey) November 2, 2022
And, as Lake points out, Twitter is already a top site for adult content, it’s just that up until now, there hasn’t been a way for users to charge for adult media without leaving the site:
Which brings us to today’s news, which notes this will bring Twitter into completion with other adult sites.
We should note though, Twitter is ALREADY one of the most popular porn sites! It’s just not monetized pic.twitter.com/BmbYuc6Ziy
— Ashley Lake (@AshleyLatke) November 2, 2022
Obviously, even without advertisers, Twitter censorship (specifically government-mandated censorship) is still going to be a big problem.
The problem here is that most censorship enacted by social media platforms comes at the demand of the “laws of the land” Musk says he will follow. Ask sex workers in the US, LGBTQ content creators in Turkey or Russia, or any internet user in China. https://t.co/QultBv8ALa
— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) October 27, 2022
There’s a reason why some folks aren’t feeling 100% positive about this move:
I don’t disagree with you—tech founder culture has been structurally misogynist from the outset. What really bothers me about this move, though, is Twitter has also long suppressed sex workers’ content. This feels like a cynical ploy to profit off/scrape data off their labor.
— Melissa Gira Grant (@melissagira) November 2, 2022
However, as Lake has explained, Musk is uniquely positioned to hold up under government censorship due to his wealth:
yes, government pressure will be huge! they have a different motive than profit in the same way, though they do profit off policing sex work
but read up in this thread, elon is uniquely positioned to fight it with pure money power, what lobbying is abouthttps://t.co/pO0o37hi2v
— Ashley Lake (@AshleyLatke) November 2, 2022
