Crowdfunding subscription platform Patreon censorship policy is changing to become stricter against adult content. This includes those making pornography through their services.
Patreon is cracking down on content creators that make more pornographic content. On October 17t they updated their content policy to become stricter against pornographic material. This change may shut down many of their creators and an online petition by porn-makers using their service has been initiated.
Previously, it can be noted that Patreon had a grey area for adult content. This allowed many to offer adult services, such as webcam sessions or pornographic videos, to be gained through their platform. The new policies will disallow this.
Their new policy states “Patreon cannot be used to support (including incest, bestiality, sexual depiction of minors, and suggestive sexual violence). ”
Patreon will not be deleting creators who violate the new policies. Instead, their Trust and Safety team will work to help creators work within the new rules. This way they can take away offending content, and have their profiles reinstated.
The company has stated that they are not changing the policy, rather they will be enforcing already existing ones more strictly. Below is their stance on adult and pornographic content.
“you cannot sell pornographic material or arrange sexual service(s) as a reward for your patrons. We define pornographic material as real people engaging in sexual acts such as masturbation or sexual intercourse on camera. You can’t use Patreon to raise funds in order to produce pornographic material such as maintaining a website, funding the production of movies, or providing a private webcam session.”
A group of porn content creators who use Patreon have written an open letter because of the new policies. The open letter has the tagline “Don’t abandon us.”
The letter challenges Patreon on whether they believe in freedom of expression and their stance of creators expressing themselves through sexuality. They also claim Patreon’s “fuzzy position” on adult content vs porn gives them “freedom to discriminate at will”.
“Your platform strikes a pose in favor of freedom of expression, but there is no way your current contradictory stances can result in any sort of comfort to the creators.”
“We know people who would be homeless if it wasn’t for making porn on Patreon – and it’s not a small number,” claims the letter.
Regarding changes to our content policy: I hear you, I read the open letter. I'm working with the team to have a thorough response by 2mrrow
— Jack Conte (@jackconte) October 25, 2017
Jack Conte, CEO for Patreon has written a response to the open letter. “We have never allowed pornography or sexual services on Patreon and that stance has been clear in our guidelines since they were first published a few years ago.”
The edit in the policy is to be more specific as some creators did not understand. Consequently, Patreon will now also be more thorough with applying their policies.
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