The world is full of discrimination and prejudice, and that the society tends to target a group of people, because they don't see the people fit into their own conclusion.
And porn actors and actresses fall into this category.
For more than many years, adult performers have spoken out about the discrimination they face due to their work.
Among others, include being denied banking services and being fired from other jobs.
Examples include Lana Rhoades and some others, who faced difficulty when renting or buying a home. Chanel Preston and some others said that banks refused to open or close accounts under their names.
All of them were discriminated due to their profession.
Since many adult performers have to 'bare' everything in front of the camera, and that they have to perform without any clothing on them, let alone hiding their faces, the only thing they can expect, is to hide their real identities.
This is to ensure their privacy.
Most adult performers don't use their real names while at work, and instead market themselves using "stage names," which are made up names to protect the privacy and well-being of themselves, their family, and also their loved ones, who probably don’t want to have anything to do with porn in real life.
This is because regardless of how much the world, and also the internet, are open to human sexuality, many parts of the society are still conveying pornography as taboo.
Adult performers know this, and this is why they and their family members, and their loved ones, to suffer because of their career decisions.
While many adult performers are able to remain under the radar in real life, and that they can blend in to the society without anyone noticing their 'alter ego', some others cannot.
As a result of this, they also face discrimination from social media websites.
Samantha Squirt, for example, had her Instagram account banned, even when she never posted her nipples, labia, or anything that could be considered adult related. What she did, was posting links to her own website and cam site, and that she didn't hide the fact that she’s a sex worker, but claims to have never broken Instagram’s content rules.
“No email, no contact or anything [from Instagram] to tell me why it was taken down […] the ability to get in contact with a live human, and not some messaging bot of Instagram, is impossible,” she said.
She also questioned why accounts like Brazzers and Playboy are allowed to be on the platform, whereas individuals are removed.
They're the brands behind their works, earning most of the money the individuals generated.
Why is that the people who work by putting their real life's on the line, so those companies can profit, are getting banned?
Why is that the companies that promote them receive all the glory, and that the performers themselves are getting dumped like trash?
Read: Alyssa Funke: Getting Caught Between Cyberbullies And Amateur Porn
"I don't understand. If people understand I am a sex worker, I don't post any nudes, and am just trying to help my business, why is it so wrong?" she said.
Another sex worker, named Dacey Harlot, said that her Instagram account was removed seemingly at random.
Gwen Adora, another sex writer and model, said that the terms of service on Instagram are too vague, and that it can target certain group unfairly.
She had her first Instagram account banned, despite being free of adult-related content. Her second Instagram account she made for her sex writing blog was also removed.
Gwen said that she appealed the decision, and had her account reinstated, before being banned again. Each time her account was reinstated, she tried to "clean it up" more and attempting to guess what caused the deletion, but received no clear explanation into what rules she violated.
"Sex workers (whether clothed or not) are getting taken down, while other users, even those who are verified, are posting nearly naked photos without needing to worry about getting their accounts taken away," said Gwen.
"These people and sex workers are posting and creating some of the exact same types of content, yet people who self identify as sex workers, those who sell through porn sites, are deleted."
Riley Reid, a famous porn performer who has received dozens of awards, also had her Instagram account deleted.
The 1991-born adult performer said that she didn’t know why her account was deleted, since she never uploaded any porn-related content to it, or post any nudity through the account.
She only assumed that it must've been people reporting her content unfairly.
Read: A Widow In Indonesia Got Arrested For Becoming An Adult Webcam Model
To all the young women that are interested in getting into porn: pic.twitter.com/sCsqU5VQhD
— Bree Olson (@BreeOlson) June 17, 2015
Because of this, hundreds of performers and models have signed a letter to the social giant Facebook, saying that their Instagram accounts were closed unfairly.
Many of them complained that they are being held to a different standard than mainstream celebrities, as more than a thousands adult performers claimed that their accounts have been deleted by Instagram's content moderators for violations of the site's community standards.
What's concerning to them is that, their posts don't depict any nudity or sex.
They claimed that famous celebrities, like Kim Kardashian, are allowed to be much more explicit on their accounts, and violate Instagram's community guidelines by posting pictures of themselves in "varying states of dress" without repercussions than porn stars or sex workers, but don't get sanctioned.
Famous celebrities have been photographed nude, but had their hands, or some other things, carefully positioned to cover her breasts and/or their pubic region, despite the fact that Instagram's community guidelines forbid nudity, including "sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks" and female nipples.
Because of this, they demand answer.
Not only that the Facebook-owned platforms are being targeted, because in total, there is more than 100 platforms in total, including banks, payment processors, social media websites and hotels, that are accused of discriminating against these people.
On these people's behalf, the Adult Performers Actors Guild is standing up for sex workers who are tired of being banned from social media and elsewhere, without explanation.
Read: The Death Of A Porn Star After Being Cyberbullied Because Of Her Homophobic Tweet
Thank you for @Chase for closing my personal acct that Ive had since I was 18yrs old.I was w/ Washington mutual before you bought them out
— Teagan Presley™ (@MsTeagan) April 21, 2014
According to Alana Evans, the President of the Adult Performers Actors Guild (APAG), a union that advocates for adult industry professionals’ rights:
"It became really obvious that either people were being unnecessarily reported and removed without Instagram caring or Instagram just outright not replying at all, and locking them out."
In an April 22 letter to Facebook, the Adult Performers Actors Guild’s legal counsel James Felton wrote:
"Effort to learn the reasons behind the termination have been futile. Performers are asked to send pictures of their names to try to verify that the accounts are actually theirs and not put up by frauds. Emails are sent and there is no reply."
Because the letter didn't receive any reply from Facebook, another letter was sent on April 30.
In a fight against discrimination, many of adult performers, big and small, and porn stars, famous and amateurs, struggle to keep their accounts, even when they’re abiding by the platforms’ rules.
With rules that can sometimes be unclear and/or ambiguous, these people are targets of being banned, regardless of how closely they follow the rules.
This leaves them without a platform, and a big question regarding what they did wrong.
Making things difficult for them, Instagram's Terms of Use state that by becoming its users, they must agree to waive their right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.
In order to defend the sex workers who got banned, the APAG encourages anyone in the adult industry to fill out an online form, where they can detail how platforms have blocked or banned them.
The adult industry is unforgiving. Among the many that experienced this first hand, was Mia Khalifa, whose internet phenomenon far outlived her porn career.
In 2020, she said that:
