SESTA/FOSTA: the European perspective

SESTA/FOSTA sucks. There is no doubt.

But I'm going to chime in with a European perspective.

Although this law is predominantly USA based, it has global reaching consequences. Dommes (and all other forms of sex workers) are shitting themselves over here too. Although, sex work is not illegal in most European countries and in some countries (Germany, Holland, Suisse) it is actually legal and regulated.

Since this law has unfortunately come into effect, with its draconian outlook and vague definitions, we have seen Twitter, IG, Facebook, Google analytics etc change their terms of use. Although some of this could be down to Facebook's data mining criticisms, the social media giants probably took this as a good time to do some massive house keeping.

Social media has been My main source of traffic to My website. And what a bonus, its free! However, now we will have to change the way we word things. We have already been shadow banned and easily closed down with no explanation.

However, I personally think the storm will eventually blow over and this will be a short term thing (ok for the next year or so - we are after all the "oldest profession"). We will find a way around things.

Backpage has been down in the US for a lot longer than it has elsewhere. For Me in Paris, it was My main source of advertising. Also when I went home to Vancouver it was very fruitful. But there is no doubt in My dirty mind that someone, somewhere as I type this is developing BP V2 or something similar. Look at how quickly Switter came about.

I don't think SESTA will effect those of us who have have built our reputations over many years in the long term. But it will be harder for the "insta-dommes" to build a reputation and it will also be harder for established Dommes who tour to carve out a new territory.

The demand won't go away. And neither will we. We will just have to be a lot more creative moving forward.

Stay strong sisters!

With love from Paris,

Lady Bellatrix

Per usual, your insights are immaculate. I would ad my opinion that Switter listings will be BP v2 (which, actually, was Craigslist V2).

I also think that the almost immediate response to SESTA was because everyone was basically already rewriting their TOU/TOS in response to the new EU privacy laws going into effect. Not saying that their moves wouldn't have happened, just that many sites had new policies even before the law was passed because they already had groups working on the rewrites.

Thanks Asp.

Yes, it seems almost a coninidence that all the biggies of social media changed their Terms of Use at the same time the bill was passed.

One year from now, the hysteria will have died down and we will have reframed our way of doing things.

Femdom 4eva!!

OK, so it has been over a year since I posted this originally.

Perhaps I was a bit optimistic in my prediction that it would blow over in a year. Instead what has happened is that it has made SWers more vocal about basic human rights, decrim, etc. The fight isn't over. It looks like it has just begin. Luckily most of us have thick skin and strong enough to adapt.