TY - GEN
T1 - An Analysis of Terms of Service and Official Policies with Respect to Sex Work
AU - Bhalerao, Rasika
AU - McCoy, Damon
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 IEEE.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Policymakers who design the rules that govern the internet and the technologists who implement them can often be disconnected from some of the populations affected by their products. In this study, we analyze the terms of service, community guidelines, privacy policies, and other documents officially issued by online platforms in the United States to discuss their implications with regards to a marginalized population of interest: workers in the sex industry, ranging in autonomy from sex workers with a high degree of autonomy to survivors of sex trafficking. While criminalized and stigmatized populations such as sex industry workers are underrepresented among technologists, we show how technological decision makers without subject matter knowledge or understanding of the motivations and effects on the population can unintentionally lead to harming sex industry workers. Our analysis is in line with sex industry worker-led movements to stop arresting sex industry workers, de-stigmatize sex work, and let sex industry workers remain and flourish in online life. We study over 100 online platforms from 13 platform types and discuss the laws, perceptions, and motivations behind their policies regarding the sex industry, and how these policies affect sex industry workers. We find that platforms generally view sex industry workers as either criminals, victims, spam, or entrepreneurs; we show how using the first three paradigms to characterize the entire industry can lead to stigmatization, overly general and restrictive rules, and decreased accessibility to online life. We use this study as an example to illustrate the need for a cultural shift in the technology community towards empathy and social education and provide concrete research directions towards a solution.
AB - Policymakers who design the rules that govern the internet and the technologists who implement them can often be disconnected from some of the populations affected by their products. In this study, we analyze the terms of service, community guidelines, privacy policies, and other documents officially issued by online platforms in the United States to discuss their implications with regards to a marginalized population of interest: workers in the sex industry, ranging in autonomy from sex workers with a high degree of autonomy to survivors of sex trafficking. While criminalized and stigmatized populations such as sex industry workers are underrepresented among technologists, we show how technological decision makers without subject matter knowledge or understanding of the motivations and effects on the population can unintentionally lead to harming sex industry workers. Our analysis is in line with sex industry worker-led movements to stop arresting sex industry workers, de-stigmatize sex work, and let sex industry workers remain and flourish in online life. We study over 100 online platforms from 13 platform types and discuss the laws, perceptions, and motivations behind their policies regarding the sex industry, and how these policies affect sex industry workers. We find that platforms generally view sex industry workers as either criminals, victims, spam, or entrepreneurs; we show how using the first three paradigms to characterize the entire industry can lead to stigmatization, overly general and restrictive rules, and decreased accessibility to online life. We use this study as an example to illustrate the need for a cultural shift in the technology community towards empathy and social education and provide concrete research directions towards a solution.
KW - bias
KW - community guidelines
KW - policy
KW - sex industry
KW - sex work
KW - terms of service
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U2 - 10.1109/ISTAS55053.2022.10227104
DO - 10.1109/ISTAS55053.2022.10227104
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85172347135
T3 - International Symposium on Technology and Society, Proceedings
BT - ISTAS 2022 - IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society 2022
A2 - Gopal, T V
A2 - Lau, Laurie
A2 - Chang, Lennon
A2 - Adamson, Greg
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, ISTAS 2022
Y2 - 10 November 2022 through 12 November 2022
ER -