The fallout from Patreon's decision may mean that performers lose their entire income stream, since there are so few available options. "I've worked with them in the past on revising my portfolio, and they just changed the game again." "It's going to be very hard to believe them," she added. The only way that Roux can envisage Patreon becoming a trusted brand again is if the site says that it will welcome adult content and pornography onto its platform, even if that means placing it in a hidden, adults-only section. "It was definitely a big part of them gaining our trust." "They can't say they run a platform for niche artists and freedom of expression," Roux said, "and also arbitrarily decide what is and is not 'acceptable' adult content." The artist feels that any trust between the community and Patreon has now broken down as a result of the policy change. Roux told Engadget that Patreon's stance has caused a great deal of nervousness for the sex workers and artists who use the platform. All of which were apparently endorsed by Patreon previously, and are key mechanisms to enable sex workers to get paid.Īn excerpt from Patreon's previous policy that permitted sexual imagery. These included forbidding the use of Patreon donations to produce pornographic material, maintain an adults-only website or solicit money in exchange for a private webcam session. Patreon's revised document not only excised references to erotic art, however, but also included a number of new provisions related to sex work. The artist even claims that the site offered tips on how adult content creators could use Patreon to fund movies and create websites to "reliably deliver rewards to our patrons." The letter, at the time of writing, had around 250 signatures from creators who feel that their livelihoods are now under threat.īased on public information, so far the signers on collectively have 46101 patrons representing $152,744 in income* In her Open Letter to Patreon, artist Liara Roux describes that sense of betrayal, since Patreon had previously made moves to openly court sex workers. It even emailed its adult content creators (a copy is available here), telling them that "as a company we are not happy with lack of transparency since it impacts the livelihoods of Adult Content creators." Now, sex workers feel betrayed. In 2016, the site very publicly enabled users to receive donations through PayPal subsidiary Braintree after a long battle with the e-commerce provider. Patreon had always described itself as "not for pornography" but offered a broad latitude for projects that contained erotic content, and the change has caused much upset in the community that produces such material.ĭespite Patreon's claims to the contrary, the site has clearly backed pornographers and sex workers in their projects. Beyond tightening provisions around hate speech and illegal content, the site essentially banned sex workers and adult content of a sexual nature. The new document was now much more proscriptive about what the site's users could and could not use its payments platform for. On October 17th, crowdfunding website Patreon amended the terms of its acceptable use policy as part of a wider program of reform. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.