LOS ANGELES—April Lampert and Amy Baldwin—creators and hosts of female-forward sex-ed podcast Shameless Sex—are at the center of a censorship conflict with Instagram.
“Shameless Sex, along with many other woman-run sex education/activism accounts have officially been ‘shadow-banned, while it seems many male-run exploitive/pornographic accounts continue to run freely,’” Baldwin said. “It feels like women's voices are being silenced for talking or teaching about sexuality, while male-owned accounts are still allowed to objectify women and/or promote sex-negativity.”
The popular podcast, which covers various sex-related topics in a humorous, informative and non-exploitative manner—and many female-led educational outlets like it—have been unfairly singled out and censored, believes Baldwin.
Colleagues of Baldwin and Lampert have also had similar issues with YouTube and Twitter, while other high-profile platforms such as Google, Apple and Reddit have also hit users with ‘violation of community guidelines’ notices.
Last year’s passing of the FOSTA-SESTA “sex-trafficking” law—where websites are now legally accountable for their users’ potentially-problematic content—is creating an over-censoring issue for users, mostly female ones.
As a result, many online sexuality educators and bloggers are rallying to take a stand and get the word out about ‘shadow-banning’ content, which affects traffic count, user engagement and hashtag searches.
“The guidelines don't quite add up considering what is still allowed on these platforms,” Baldwin said. “We feel targeted for pushing the envelope of women's sexual empowerment. We've had many listeners write in to Instagram on our behalf stating that they want us back, as we have had a strong influence on their personal growth and well-being.”
Each week, Shameless Sex Podcast draws in more than 500,000 downloads and 20,000 listens via iTunes.com and ShamelessSex.com, as well as more than 500,000 listens on Spotify, Google Play,Stitcher, YouTube and other apps in more than 75 countries.
To support and help Shameless Sex fight online content censorship, visit ShamelessSex.comor follow on social media at Instagram @SHAMELESSSEXPODCAST, Twitter @shameless_sex or Facebook at Shameless Sex podcast.
