Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you may have seen the mass cull Meta undertook on sexual wellness and pleasure-focused accounts across Facebook and Instagram earlier this year. From dominatrixes, pleasure activists, and sexual wellness educators to Pornhub and other huge sex-focused brands, no one was safe from their crackdown on adult content across Meta sites.
For many, this has caused an outcry on free speech and arguments that it discriminates significantly towards denying a platform to trans and non-binary creators promoting their content and female-centric pleasure brands and educators. It also raised questions surrounding Meta’s content and advertising rules and policies. Just a year earlier, content creators rejoiced as Instagram updated its policy to allow sexual education content.
So, what does Metas crack down on sexual content mean for the adult industry?
In this article, Adult Site Broker looks to answer this question.
Meta’s current policy on sexual content
Currently, Meta has a strict policy on sexual content, and it is not allowed on the platform. Any content that depicts or promotes sexual activity, nudity, or sexual solicitation is strictly prohibited.
This policy is intended to ensure that Meta remains a safe and welcoming platform for all users, including minors and vulnerable individuals.
Meta has a team of content moderators who monitor the platform to ensure that all content adheres to the community standards. If you come across any sexual content on the platform, you can report it to the moderators for review and removal.
However, in 2022, Meta opened its policy to allow sexual education content on its platforms. Stating that “advertisers can run ads that promote sexual health, wellness, and reproductive products and services.” This allowed for activists, educators, brands, and creators to post images relating to vulvas and penises so long as they met their content policy.
While the new policy was originally celebrated, it has since been criticized for not being true, with brands, educators, and content creators alike finding their content still being unfairly taken down and denied the right to run ads.
Meta’s 2023 Crackdown on sexual wellness accounts
Although Meta has previously stated that it supports the sexual wellness industry and recognizes its importance in promoting health and well-being, the new 2022 policy has been criticized as a sham.
Earlier in the summer, many accounts that post about sexual wellness, pleasure, and talk about female pleasure found their accounts suddenly suspended. After 6 weeks, these crackdowns were reversed, but thousands still lost accounts they had built a dedicated fanbase around.
Many argue that those unjustly affected were LGBTQIA+ creators, sexual educators, and those focused on female pleasure, whereas many creators who focus on male pleasure were left relatively unscathed.
It left many confused, as their content was SFW with no depictions of vulvas, penises, sex, or nipples, and had many arguing that their moderators were suspending accounts based on the use of certain hashtags and captions.
This has led the Centre for Intimacy Justice to file a formal complaint with the FTC against Meta. Stating that this routine denial of female health providers the ability to advertise, unlike their male health counterparts, was discriminatory and violates their own policies. This complaint was filed 18 months after they had published their report on what they saw as Facebook’s “censorship of health ads for women and people of diverse genders.” They found that, of the 60 brands mentioned in the report, every one had had its ads denied by Facebook at some point.
How does this impact adult industry sites?
The impact of these crackdowns on the adult services, female health, and sexual wellness and pleasure brands has led many to decide if they wish to remain on social media.
For many smaller brands with limited budgets, social media has played a vital role in building brand awareness and driving sales. By having their social media channels shut down, they are finding that their sales are being affected.
But it’s not just small brands who have been affected; big brands like Pornhub have also had their accounts suspended, no matter how SFW their accounts are. Influencers and OnlyFans models, who rely on social media to drive traffic to their OnlyFans pages, have also had to look for new ways to promote themselves, turning to Twitter (now X), Telegram, and Reddit.
It has also affected many social media managers at these brands, who struggle to create captions and use hashtags that don’t immediately flag Meta moderators.
Can the adult industry advertise on Meta?
The short answer is: Maybe.
The long answer is more complex than this. Although Meta has opened its advertising policies to include sexual wellness and educational content, many have reported that such content and ads are still flagged as inappropriate. Many have found they can operate normally.
Many big brands, such as Ann Summers and LoveHoney, have run ads promoting the sale of their products. However, many smaller brands, educators, and women’s health services have reported that their ads have been rejected and their content still heavily moderated. This has led to complaints to the FTC and criticism that their new policies are just smoke and mirrors.
With posts about endometriosis, STDs, and vulvas being taken down and posts about penises being allowed, many have argued that the moderators heavily favor male-focused posts about sex and sexual health.
What is the future of advertising in the Adult Industry?
With the advertising tactics being done by companies like Womanizer and Love Not War, two campaigns on showers and sex, the adult industry may see a return to the old-school marketing and advertising tactics instead of relying on social media.
From seeking PR opportunities to word of mouth and using blogs and newsletters, and with a greater focus on influencer marketing, many brands in the adult industry are taking the pressure off themselves to focus on their socials and drive sales by targeting influencers who can promote them across social media. There has also been increased activity in SEO and search engine marketing, and display advertising on adult websites.
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