Instagram Deleted My Account During Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Everyday when I log into my instagram, I see sex workers pages being removed. I was living in wilful ignorance that my performer page (@vixentemple666) was at a higher risk of censorship due to the fact that I post images of my female body. The horror! A female curve? Shut it down! But I felt safe on my @vixentempleblog page because I never posted images of my body. Instead, I posted content related to eating the rich, calling out men’s toxic traits, and educating people on how to be supportive allies for sex workers. They couldn’t censor me for nudity, so I got removed for “hate speech” instead.

On April 15th, I posted to my Instagram page an image of a sign I had created for a March Against Sexual Assault protest that’s happening in the coming weekend. The sign read “Sex Work Is Not Consent.” As it is sexual assault awareness month, I posted this image with a caption asking that Aotearoa do better in it’s treatment of sex workers. I wrote about how my job was blamed for my assault, and that sex workers are a luxury and not a scapegoat for men with poor self control. I carried on my day as per usual, only to open my app a few hours later to discover that my page had been disabled for 30 days. The cause: “Sex Work Is Not Consent” is considered hate speech and containing violent imagery. What in the patriarchal bullshit is this?

“Hate Speech”

I wish I could pretend that this doesn’t bother me and that “it’s not a big deal.” But it is a big deal. I’m being silenced during a month that’s dedicated to people like me. I hate that I’m a sexual assault survivor, but knowing that I had a platform to share my story to was important in my healing. Opening up about my assault, and the feedback I received from all of my beautiful and amazing supporters was doing wonders for my mental health. I’m a writer, and sharing my experiences is extremely cathartic to me. Having a community of sex workers and allies has been such a blessing in my life, and because of Instagram double standards I may loose that blessing.

The most frustrating thing is that I’m being punished for something that I am proud of. I’m proud to be a sex worker. I’m proud of my healing journey since my assault in 2019. Being at a point where I can open up about my assault is a big deal for any survivor of this horrible crime. Kyren Marx did not receive a fair punishment for the trauma his actions have caused me, so to be able to take matters into my own hands and claim back my narrative through my Instagram is very important to me. This blog has been a huge part of my recovery not just for my sexual assault, but for all of my lived experiences. I open up about many issues I’ve faced on my blog/Instagram, and I’m always met with such a tremendous amount of support from my wee community that I’ve been so fortunate to create.

I am being unfairly punished and targeted for being a sex worker activist daring to exist online. We live in an area of intense censorship, where the wrong people are being silenced. I have to deal with rape threats from random men on the internet, I’ve seen way too many unsolicited dick pictures in my time online. When I report those, nothing happens. People can spew racism, misogyny and bigotry online without so much of a slap on the wrist. Sex workers open up about our lived experiences and try to offer solutions to large global issues, and we get deleted. Our pages are disappearing, we are being erased from the internet despite how much engagement our feeds contribute to Instagram.

When we cry for help, we’re often met with “why don’t you just go to another app?” This is just another form of victim blaming in my eyes. Instead of offering a solution (“how can we help you?”), the responsibility to fix the issue is placed on our shoulders. We’re expected to just suck it up and move on. But why should we? We have just as much a right to be on Instagram as anyone else. We watch as pole fit instructors profit of pole, we watch as celebrities cosplay as us, but we dare to even post that “sex work is not consent” and we get removed. This isn’t fair, and I’m tired of being told to essentially just “get over it”.

My body is “offensive content”. My voice is “hate speech”. I get looked down upon in society for being a sex worker, and the one place where I felt safe to share my voice while elevating other sex workers voices has been taken from me. I am so tired of having to tiptoe around Instagram's sexist guidelines and still being removed. I just want my account back. I want all sex workers to have their account back. Stop trying to erase us.