12/05/2018
Hey Philanthrotease fans, we're reaching out on a serious note today. As with so many small event producers and businesses, Facebook has been a vital part of the grassroots-level promotion that enabled us to grow and thrive and build this wonderful community that we all share throughout the year. This week, Facebook has announced new T&Cs to their community standards that effectively ban ALL s*xuality-related content, whether social between individuals, commercial from businesses or events or organizations, and very likely even educational. We will hold out here as long as we're able to, but there's a strong chance that this page will be shut down by Facebook along with many, many other pages and groups and personal accounts.
This was an inevitable outcome of SESTA-FOSTA, legislation which-- make no mistake-- is absolutely the most harmful to the lives, livelihoods, and safety of s*x workers. However, it has deep repercussions for all of us as our s*xual rights and freedoms are denied and curtailed. We urge you to get involved with the fight to repeal SESTA-FOSTA, which you can do by turning to organizations like Woodhull Freedom Foundation that are actively fighting back.
Learn about the damage SESTA-FOSTA has already wrought. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/s*x-worker-advocates-lawsuit-internet-censorship-sesta-fosta-666783/
Certainly, we would also urge you to make your feelings known to Facebook if you oppose these new standards. We're sure there will be no shortage of petitions and other forms of protest organized in the wake of this change.
For our own part, if you're a fan of here's what you can do to make sure you stay connected with us:
1) Join our mailing list. https://tinyurl.com/PhilanthroteaseEmail
Normally, we only ever send an email about once a month, so we promise not to inundate you. But it's our best way to get in touch with you if we can no longer use Facebook.
2) Enable notifications for this page. We normally only update a few times per week unless it is leading up to an event, and we'll post updates about where else you'll be able to find us as we plan for the future.
We'd encourage you to do the same for any s*xuality-related businesses, events, groups, educators, authors, artists, and activists you may follow, even including things like lingerie stores, burlesque shows, and LGBTQ resources. A lot of side gigs, careers, and organized volunteer work are likely to be seriously impacted. People who work hard are going to lose money and audience, and all of us will be grateful to everyone who reaches out to stay connected to us and hang in there until we know what comes next.
