She says she was permanently banned after Reddit sent her an email saying she had violated its content policy. By posting pictures of feet on foot fetish-related communities,” adult content creator Sweet Toes 4 U tells Rolling Stone. “They said that I broke Reddit’s content policy somehow.
#MEGASYNC SAFE REDDIT FREE#
This is particularly surprising given that Reddit is a bastion of adult content, with various subreddits existing for virtually any kink, and creators have historically been free to post provided they abide by community guidelines and post in NSFW communities. “The fact that sex workers are reporting an uptick on Reddit is particularly concerning because it has been one of the last places where this type of content is allowed,” says Evan Greer, director of the digital rights organization Fight for the Future, citing Twitter as the only other example of a platform that still continues to allow NSFW content.
The site’s moderator-based system also provides little transparency and makes it difficult to know if content guidelines are being consistently applied. Yet even though Reddit has a reputation for being relatively sex-positive compared to other Big Tech sites, sex workers are increasingly finding themselves restricted or even outright permanently banned on the platform, often without notice or any explanation from Reddit support. Sex workers have long been subject to deplatforming on most social media platforms, from Instagram to TikTok to Tumblr. Vanniall is not the only adult content creator who has recently found themselves abruptly removed or had their Reddit account limited without warning.
Plus, “without a notification or any warning in advance, it means fans aren’t even left with a place to ask questions about where their stars or friends disappeared to.”
“These several day interruptions very quickly impact someone’s income - a week can feel like a month to waiting fans” looking to connect with their favorite creator, she says. Though Vanniall got her account back, she still has no idea why it had been taken down in the first place. Jury Awards $1.7 Million to Ex-Porn Actress Who Sued Oregon Community College Her fan subreddits, or subcommunities, were also removed, which Reddit explained was because she had been removed as a moderator - essentially, the head of the group who determines what content can and can’t be posted - due to restrictions on her account. She contacted Reddit support, which told her that her account had been marked as spam. Last week, however, she logged onto her account and noticed that her posts were not getting as many upvotes as usual. Even as other platforms started changing their terms of service to ban NSFW content, Reddit was one of the few mainstays where the posting guidelines remained relatively lax. But when she started using it to share adult content of herself, she found that not only was it a tremendous confidence booster - “it was a big contributor, along with Tumblr, to my confidence in my body and with my gender,” says Vanniall - but also a significant source of income when people started offering to tip her for custom content or doing a video call.Īt the time, Vanniall was working in retail, but she says Reddit subsequently became an essential part of her burgeoning adult content business, using the platform to interact with existing fans, recruit new ones, and promote her services on other platforms like OnlyFans or Chaturbate. At first, she used it largely for fun, checking out subreddits like r/nosleep every night before bed and also fan subreddits for games like Elden Ring to get tips about gameplay. Vanniall has been using Reddit for the past seven years, since she initially started her account in 2015.