VOLUME 76 • ISSUE 20 • AUGUST 24, 2021
SPORTS
Vikings lose to Seattle University in season opener P.6
SCIENCE & TECH
Can OnlyFans survive without porn? P.8
ARTS & CULTURE
The immersive world of Venice VR P.7
CONTENTS
COVER BY SHANNON STEED, COVER PHOTO BY NICK GATLIN
NEWS HILL TO HALL AUGUST 16–20
P. 3
A BRIDGE TOO FAR: THE TROUBLE WITH THE SBSP
P. 4-5
SPORTS VIKINGS SOCCER FALLS TO SEATTLE U IN SEASON OPENER
P. 6
ARTS & CULTURE VENICE VR RETURNS TO THE PORTLAND ART MUSEUM
P. 7
SCIENCE & TECH THE FATE OF ONLYFANS AND THE INDUSTRIES THAT DEPEND ON IT
P. 8
STAFF EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Nick Gatlin
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Ryan McConnell
MANAGING EDITOR Morgan Troper
ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Béla Kurzenhauser
NEWS EDITORS Conor Carroll Danny O’Brien
ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings
INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Karisa Yuasa SPORTS EDITOR Eric Shelby
COPY CHIEF Mackenzie Streissguth CONTRIBUTORS Nova Johnson Catherine Kane Analisa Landeros
PHO T O A ND MULTIMEDI A MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Olivia Lee
A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood
PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shannon Steed
STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher
DESIGNER Kelsey Stewart T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Juliana Bigelow Kahela Fickle George Olson
STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com
MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.
A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.
AUGUST 16-20 DANNY O’BRIEN
AUGUST 16: COVID-19 DELTA VARIANT HITS OREGON
As the Delta variant makes its rounds and vaccination rates stagnate across the state, Oregon watches its COVID-19 case counts, hospitalizations and deaths climb higher. In just the weekend preceding Aug. 16, there were over 4,300 new COVID-19 cases. Hospitalizations sat at the state’s record high with 752 people, and with deaths at 14. Of these cases, Multnomah County had 504, Washington County had 166 and Clackamas had 296. Oregon’s total case count is 242,843 with around 3,000 people dead.
AUGUST 17: PORTLAND NABISCO WORKERS JOIN PLANTS ACROSS U.S. IN STRIKE
Nabisco workers continue their strike in Portland for the second week against Nabisco parent company Mondelez. The picketing and work stoppage has also reached Aurora, Colorado and Richmond, Virginia. Workers are responding to threats from the company to cut daily overtime pay, premium pays, cuts in health benefits and increases in temporary workers. The company has also been laying off large amounts of employees over the last few years and striking pensions of workers and retirees. The workers are unionized under the Baker, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.
AUGUST 18: PORTLAND SCHOOLS REQUIRE VACCINATIONS FOR EMPLOYEES
With the return to school fast approaching alongside COVID-19’s unrelenting war path, the Portland Public School District announces that it will require proof of vaccination from all of its employees by Aug. 30, a few days before school starts back up in session. This move comes after a few Portland hospitals have also started requiring employees to be vaccinated. The school district maintains that those employees who are not vaccinated by the deadline must receive regular testing, up until the point of vaccination. The labor union representing Portland’s teachers, the Portland Association of Teachers, reports that 98% of its members (over 4,500 members) have already been vaccinated.
AUGUST 19: CORVALLIS-TO-THE-SEA HIKING TRAIL OPENS
After 50 years of production, a hiking trail has opened between Corvallis and Newport along the Oregon coast. The Corvallis-to-the-Sea Trail—C2C for short—comprises 60 miles of trail and is estimated to take three to six days to complete, depending on the experience and skill of the hiker. The idea was conceived by an OSU graduate in the mid-70s, but has been in planning limbo ever since. The trail finally opens to the public on Aug. 21. Apart from being a convenient link between the valley and the coast, the trail also boasts its utility in being used to train for longer trail systems, like the Pacific Crest Trail.
AUGUST 20: RIGHT-WING PROTESTS EXPECTED IN PORTLAND
Right-wing terrorist groups Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys are planning events in downtown Portland Sunday, Aug. 22. These events fall on the one-year anniversary of violent clashes between right-wing extremists and anti-fascists in front of the Justice Center, where many right-wing extremists were seen using bear mace and carrying loaded weapons. Portland Police were present at last year’s event, but stood back and watched the violence without intervention. Police Chief Chuck Lovell has made it clear the police intend to also do nothing for the event’s anniversary, saying to Willamette Week, “We’re not going to deploy people to stand in a line or in the middle of violent groups to keep people apart where it doesn’t make tactical sense to do so.”
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NEWS
3
A BRIDGE TOO FAR The inaugural Summer Bridge Scholar Program is instilling a culture of fear and confusion for instructors, sources allege CONOR CARROLL On Aug. 23, 2021, Portland State welcomed in-person learning back to campus via the Summer Bridge Scholars Program (SBSP), a University Studies program for incoming freshmen that is managed by the Learning Center. Several instructors and student mentors working in the SBSP have claimed that the program is facing serious problems, and they fear repercussions from the administration if they question the program’s COVID-19 safety precautions or contract policies. The program “resembles a mix between confusing general education classes and a poorly executed summer camp for high school graduates,” according to an instructor within the program who requested to remain anonymous. Sources within the SBSP have raised serious concerns with PSU officials regarding specifics of the program to no avail—like COVID-19 safety protocols, employment contracts and curriculum construction, a possible violation of a bargaining agreement article and alleged retaliatory practices, for example. “The Summer Bridge Program is a FREE twocourse program held four weeks from August 23 to September 17,” the webpage for the program states. “Students earn up to seven credits for free for completion of this program. Courses will take place Mondays through Thursdays, with on-campus activities on Fridays.” The program is divided into four different cat-
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NEWS
egories: an Academic Skills course, Quantitative Literacy, Writing & Rhetoric, and group presentations, like field trips and activities. Moreover, there are in-person and remote options in the program, for both students and instructors. The hybrid course is reported to have an estimated 380 students participating, with the majority utilizing in-person learning, according to sources within the program. There are also an estimated 25 to 30 total instructors, some of whom are graduate students at PSU. PSU’s administration has not confirmed the total number of students or instructors in the SBSP, nor who these instructors are and what their qualifications are for teaching these courses, other than possession of a Master’s degree.
COVID-19 on Campus
The administration’s policy regarding in-person, on-campus classes returning to PSU in the fall semester was decided months ago, prior to the Delta variant becoming widespread throughout Oregon. “This fall, we are safely reopening our campus for in-person teaching and learning,” the PSU COVID-19 Student Resources webpage states. “We also know that the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over and that the quickly growing number of cases attributed to the coronavirus Delta variant is cause for concern.” The administration requires all students and instructors that are returning to campus in fall to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 7,
2021, according to PSU’s official COVID-19 Vaccination Policy statement. “All students and employees who access PSU locations must submit either (1) an attestation confirming the student or employee has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19; or (2) submit an applicable exemption or deferral,” the policy requirements section states. “One may decline the COVID Vaccine on a medical or nonmedical exemption [and] nonmedical exemptions include the informed decision to decline vaccination due to religious belief, philosophical belief, or other personal reasons,” the vaccination policy states. The use of terms like “exemption” and “requirement” is disputed by some. “So, any non-medical exemptions are basically whatever anyone wants them to be,” one anonymous source told Portland State Vanguard. “Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of what an exemption actually is?” As for the requirement to get the vaccine in the first place, Dr. Mark Bajorek, Director of Health Services for PSU’s Center for Student Health and Counseling, told Vanguard that the student requirement is based on the honor system. And, despite the PSU Incident Management Team’s most recent University Communications email, and PSU Provost Susan Jeffords’s Aug. 18 PSU News article titled “Our Safe Return to the PSU Campus,” some within the SBSP and the PSU American Association of University Professors (PSU-AAUP) believe that the admin-
istration’s and program director’s COVID-19 measures are insufficient. Dr. Aaron Roussell is an Associate Professor of Sociology at PSU and the current Vice President for Grievances and Academic Freedom for the PSU-AAUP. When asked for comment by Vanguard, he stated, “I became concerned that the Director of the program seemed to be minimizing the seriousness of [COVID-19] by uneven implementation of space requirements, predicting the end of the mask mandate, and requiring most students and peer mentors to live on campus and attend class in person during the duration of the program.” (Roussell’s statements do not reflect the opinions of all members of the PSU-AAUP.) Shoshana Zeisman-Pereyo, Ed. D, Director of the PSU Learning Center and the SBSP, has not responded to Vanguard requests for comment. Students will allegedly be in mixed groups for classes and residency in dorms, despite attempts by program administrators to emphasize contract tracing methods, such as seating charts, according to an instructor with the program. PSU’s official policy requires students and faculty to be vaccinated by Sept. 7, nearly two weeks after the commencement of the SBSP.
Curriculum, Contracts & More Confusion COVID-19 policy notwithstanding, other aspects of the SBSP have instigated confusion among instructors participating in the new hybrid course. The official webpage for the
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A PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY SIGN IN THE SOUTH PARK BLOCKS. NICK GATLIN/PSU VANGUARD
SBSP links to a document that describes a “day in the life” of a Summer Bridge Program scholar, presumably to prepare incoming students for the course. However, SBSP insiders claim that the curriculum’s construction and nature of training and preparation for instructors has been puzzling at best. “[The] concerns were wide ranging, including a curriculum over which [instructors] had no control (an issue of academic freedom), unclear requirements for instructors as well as the peer mentors (upper division PSU students), no contracts...despite requirements to complete training in advance, and, perhaps most concerning, an in-person requirement for most of the students, peer mentors, and instructors,” Roussell stated. It is currently unclear the number of PSUAAUP members that are employed under contract in the SBSP, nor is it known how many instructors possess a contract with PSU for their work in the SBSP. In May of 2021, the PSU administration and PSU-AAUP entered into a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that lasts until Nov. 2024. Specifically, Article 24 of the agreement addresses “Working Conditions.” Section 1 of Article 24, states in part that “The University will forward to the Association [AAUP] reports regarding the maintenance of standards prescribed for air and water quality, safe working conditions, seismic safety and vector control.” The administration’s lack of transparency
regarding COVID-19 protective measures appears to contradict this article of the agreement, though not all instructors in the SBSP are members of the AAUP. It is unclear if non-union and non-contract SBSP participants, or “un-uns,” have similar guaranteed protections like those in the CBA. According to reports, the curriculum and employment details of the SBSP have been actively denied to potential employees of the Bridge program, and a general sense of confusion undergirds much of the program’s existence thus far. “I really just don’t know what is going on,” said a source who requested to remain anonymous. “The training schedule changed, I just ‘met’ the instructor, who was just hired and has never worked at PSU before this, and I still don’t know if any of the students or faculty will be vaccinated by the time class starts.” The day-to-day aspects and administrative minutiae of the SBSP engender confusion as well, and some concerns address potential pitfalls students and instructors alike may face. “I’m really frustrated,” an instructor in the SBSP stated. “I think this transformed into something I did not agree to.” Curriculum structure, course credits and length of program have all changed since instructors first signed on, according to sources. Classes are now three or four credits within the four weeks, with students required to be in five-hour long classes at least twice a week, along with the daily skills course, to earn up to seven total credits.
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Neither SBSP Director Zeisman-Pereyo nor the PSU administration have responded to a request for comment regarding these assertions. Sources say that employment contracts were unavailable to potential instructors. Additionally, they say that should an instructor question the directives of the SBSP, they could be summarily dismissed or removed from eligibility altogether.
Retaliation by Any Other Name
“Understandably concerned for their health and wellbeing, several members who were to be employed as program instructors—necessary summer income for them—asked the Director about the possibility of teaching remotely and were unceremoniously dropped from the program days before training was to start,” Roussell stated. It is unclear if these allegations would fall under state or federal parameters for retaliation in the workplace, though Roussell indicates there may be a loophole through which the administration may remove curious instructors without consequence. “The technicality is that they were promised contracts and included in the early organizing of the program (they had access to their class on Banweb, etc.) and were told they would no longer be offered contracts after requesting remote work for their own safety—thus there is no technical breach of contract,” Roussell stated. A newsletter post from PSU-AAUP titled “Summer Bridge Program: Return to Work?”
stated regarding instructor dismissals, “Some members, concerned for their health and the health of their students, asked to train and teach the program remotely or online, and were subsequently told their services would not be needed…This request to teach remotely or online seems reasonable, especially since we are in a surge of COVID-19 Delta variant cases.” Sources have indicated that several instructors and student mentors have already been removed from eligibility or have resigned their potential posts, primarily over the issue of inperson teaching and COVID-19 writ large. PSU has not responded to requests for comment regarding these assertions. All sources that spoke to Vanguard expressed a fear of reprisal from the PSU administration.
Crossing the Bridge
Scholastic bridge programs have been gaining popularity in Oregon and elsewhere in the U.S., like at Michigan State University and the University of Arkansas. PSU’s inaugural SBSP may turn out to be a litmus test of sorts for such styles of future coursework, though the Delta variant’s rapid spread could hinder such aspirations. “Go remote. Save lives,” Roussell stated of his desires for the program. “Reinstate the instructors who were dropped or offer compensation for the opportunity cost. Reassure us that PSU takes the health of all its workers seriously even when the unions are not in a position to make it so.”
NEWS
5
VIKINGS SOCCER FALLS TO SEATTLE U IN SEASON OPENER
VIKINGS FORWARD KAILEE-RAE QUARTERO DRIBBLING THE BALL AGAINST SEATTLE UNIVERSITY. COURTESY OF BRYAN CARTER.
PSU LOOKS TO BOUNCE BACK AFTER A 2-0 LOSS
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SPORTS
ERIC SHELBY Women’s soccer in the Big Sky Conference is back in action, and Portland State kicked off their season opener against Seattle University on Aug. 21 in a hard fought 2-0 loss. Goalkeeper Enya Hernandez had seven saves for the Vikings this match. The Redhawks scored a goal in the 17th minute and solidified the win with the second goal in the 81st minute. The Viks plan to turn it around against Western Oregon University on Aug. 27 in Monmouth, Oregon. No need to panic about this loss, though. Seattle U is a difficult team to play. The Redhawks ended their season last year with a record of 12-5-2 overall in their conference, and were the runner up in the Western Athletic Conference. The Redhawks averaged 14.6 shots per game last year while their opponents averaged 9.6 per game. In this match, Seattle U had 17 shots while PSU had shots by 6 different Viks, including sophomore Ani Jensen and freshman Abi Hoffman. This is the Redhawks’ eighth win against PSU. The PSU women’s soccer team played two exhibition games before their season opener, showing promising results. 17 athletes returned to the women’s soccer team hopeful this year, following our goodbye to eight Class of 2021 graduates. 2019 All-Big Sky Honorable Mention defender Liz Hansen, Academic All-Big Sky from 2017 to 2020 forward Megan Cornett and 2019 Big Sky AllConference Honorable Mention Teà Poore return this season as redshirt seniors because of their eligibility. The first match was against Oregon Tech and the other with Bellevue College. The Vikings dominated in both matches, 4–0 and 6–0, respectively. This season, Portland State was picked ninth in the Big Sky preseason coaches’ poll, 3 votes above Idaho. With that in mind, head coach Katie Burton enters her fifth season with the team as she looks to lead the Viks to their first Big Sky tournament since 2019, after ending the previous season 0–8–0 and finishing last in the Big Sky. There are six new Viks on the roster this season looking to make some noise and shake up the preseason coaches’ poll predictions. These newcomers already have some experience under their belt. The Viks will finally have two goalkeepers on the roster this year. Sidney O’Billovich, a sophomore transfer out of New Mexico State, is accompanied by junior Enya Hernandez, who spent the past two seasons as the only goalkeeper on the roster. The Viks also have
two new freshman defenders on the roster: defender Riley Larsen is a three-year letterwinner and the 2017 state champion at Issaquah High School in Washington. Parker Reichner is the second defender, a two-time state champion with the Westside Timbers and was with the Portland Thorns academy from 2016–2020. Two new freshman midfielders and one transfer junior are on the 2021 roster as well. Midfielder Abi Hoffman is a 2019 All-American and 2019 Offensive Player of the Year. The Viks have a new midfielder in Hannah Grady, who transferred from Mt. San Antonio College in California. The last freshman is midfielder Lucy Quinn, who was named a Top 25 Midfielder in the state of Oregon and played seven seasons with the Westside Timbers. She is also a two-time Oregon State Cup finalist. The Viks begin conference play on Sept. 26 against Sacramento State, who they fell to twice last season and once in overtime in a tight, low scoring match. Another notable home match for the Vikings is Friday, Oct. 8, when the Eastern Washington Eagles come to town. Only ranked seventh in the preseason poll with a season record of 5–4–2 last year, the Eagles are already winless at 0–2–0 this season. Idaho squares off with the Viks two days later, ranked at fourth in the preseason poll. The Viks end their regular season defending their home field against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks. The Jacks are projected to be first in the conference and were 7–2–1 last season. They made it to the tournament final in Ogden, Utah against the Montana Griz, though the final match was unfortunately cancelled due to COVID-19. As things slowly start to get back to normal, the Vikings hope to play a full regular season with entrance to the Big Sky tournament, as new freshmen are looking to prove themselves and redshirt seniors are looking to add a little more to their resumes. The Vikings’ next home game is on Sunday, Aug. 29 at Hillsboro Stadium. They will take on the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who won their season opener against PSU rival Eastern Washington. With no hesitation, the Zags dropped four goals on the Eagles, three in the first 45 and one in the second half, giving them their first clean sheet of the season. A fresh start is here for the Rose City team with strong newcomers to lead the team for the future.
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 24, 2021 • psuvanguard.com
SARA LISA VOGL'S EXPLORING HOME. COURTESY OF THE PORTLAND ART MUSEUM.
THE INTERACTIVE FESTIVAL RETURNS TO PORTLAND FOR A SECOND YEAR
VENICE VR RETURNS TO THE PORTLAND ART MUSEUM BÉLA KURZENHAUSER
Following the success of the 2020 edition of the Portland Art Museum’s “Venice VR Expanded” exhibition, the museum will be hosting the 2021 edition of the festival from Sept. 1–19 in partnership with the Northwest Film Center and the Venice Biennale (also known as La Biennale di Venezia). The Biennale is well-known for hosting the Venice International Film Festival—the world’s oldest film festival, having run for 89 years. Since 2017, the festival has offered an additional competition for both cinematic and interactive virtual reality media. Alongside the showings at the festival in Venice, the Biennale collaborates with over a dozen museums and institutions located throughout the world. This opportunity to participate in the festival in international locations was started last year as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the first international edition of “Venice VR Expanded,” the Portland Art Museum has acted as the exclusive U.S. partner for the competition. “I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with Venice Biennale for 10 years, through both its Cinema and VR programs,” said Amy Dotson, the museum’s curator of film and new media. “The director of the Venice VR, Michel Reilhac, visited us in Portland just prior to the pandemic and was able to see for himself what makes our city so unique—our community is creative in so many ways. All these ingredients swirled together are what make Portland a unique and bold choice to world-premiere, support, and
champion some of the most experimental and cutting-edge virtual reality art in the world.” Like all other current in-person events, “Venice VR Expanded” faces many health and safety concerns and challenges surrounding COVID-19, especially due to the unique virtual reality setup. In accordance with the statewide mask mandate, all participants will be required to wear a mask for the entirety of their time during the exhibition. Additionally, ten minutes of each hour-long session will be devoted to the sanitization and preparation of headsets for use. Similarly to the 2020 section, the museum will be using ultraviolet-c (UVC) light technology, designed specifically for VR headsets by Clean Box Tech, to keep headsets clean in-between sessions. “The exhibition is an equitable and accessible way for folks to travel and explore within the safety of a hyper-clean headset,” said Dotson. “Unlike sitting at home and watching TV or other screens, this medium allows you to be fully immersed in the story.” Additionally, with the exception of out-of-competition titles, the festival can be experienced at home by those with their own Vive/Valve or Oculus VR headsets. For people without personal headsets, you may reserve up to two hourlong sessions at the museum for $35 an hour (as with all museum exhibits, members are eligible for a discounted price). Of course, not all headsets are created equally, and some experiences at the festival will be exclusive to certain head-
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sets, so festival goers are encouraged to browse the selection of titles available prior to arriving. This year’s festival lineup is even better than last year’s, with an eclectic and diverse selection of liveaction, animated, non-fiction and interactive media spanning four continents. The “In Competition” section features a mix of these, many of which come from directors recognizable to anyone familiar with the world of VR filmmaking. Taiwanese VR auteur and previous Venice competitor Hsin-Chien Huang has brought his existential film Samsara to the festival, which previously won top prizes at South by Southwest’s Virtual Cinema Competition and the Cannes XR competition earlier this year. Other promising titles include the second episode of photographer Matteo Lonardi’s Il Dubbio, which previously premiered at last year’s Venice VR competition, and VR animation director Keisuke Itoh’s eccentric short interactive work Clap. The “Out of Competition” section also features a unique selection of titles, many of which are interactive. Some may be familiar to participants by name, such as the openworld puzzle game Maskmaker or Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual!, the VR remaster of Telltale’s classic point-and-click game. But, some, like Rui Guerreiro’s sensory and folklike adventure Mare or the brush-andink animated documentary Reeducated, may not be, demonstrating the festival’s commitment to diverse and creative stories.
Alongside the “Out of Competition” section, the festival is also offering a smattering of VRChat world experiences as part of the VRChat Worlds Gallery. Some of the experiences at the festival will not fit into the slot participants are allotted, so curious attendees are encouraged to sign up for two slots or pick experiences shorter than the 50 minutes they are permitted to wear the headset for. The full selection of experiences is available for viewing on the Biennale’s website. The Portland Art Museum is no stranger to cinematic installations, boundary-breaking art and innovative artistic mediums, but interactive media and games are quite new to the museum. According to Dotson, Venice VR Expanded is a potential gateway to more exhibits featuring interactive media at the museum. “Immersive, event-ized, and interactive arts are the future of storytelling and will play a significant role in both PAM and NWFC’s continued evolution,” said Dotson. “Artists, filmmakers, animators, and media storytellers in all their forms are tinkering with VR, AR, and techniques that not only play with time but space too. More than any other medium out there at present, VR allows audiences to feel and experience empathy. Like all great art, mixed reality stories deepen our connection to worlds real and imagined—and to understanding one another. And isn’t that what it’s all about, especially at this moment we’re living in?"
ARTS & CULTURE
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THE FATE OF ONLYFANS AND THE INDUSTRIES THAT DEPEND ON IT
RYAN MCCONNELL If someone exclaims “check out my OnlyFans,” what are the first things that come to mind? Is it cooking videos, comedy sketches, music and celebrity exclusives? Or is it perhaps the troves of X-rated content that the platform is best known for? An Aug. 19 press release from OnlyFans stated that, beginning Oct. 1, 2021, the platform “will prohibit the posting of any content containing sexually explicit conduct.” This news comes as a shock to both the consumers of content and the content creators themselves. It seems nonsensical to prohibit the very demographics that propelled OnlyFans to what it is today, so what exactly is going on? The company stated it is making the changes “to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payout providers.” No further details have been currently provided. The motivations behind such a decision may be more nuanced than what’s appearing on the surface. The site advertises itself as providing a timeline for paid content similar to that of social media sites, while allowing content creators to be in full control of their financial handlings. OnlyFans takes 20% of the revenue generated by its two million creators, paying out over $5 billion to the creators on the platform. At its heart, OnlyFans is a tech company just like any other tech giant in Silicon Valley, such as Facebook or Twitter. An important fact to note, though, is that it does not currently have an app—it is strictly an online website. This is because app platforms, like Google Play, prohibit apps that “contain or promote sexual content or profanity.” Inside Google’s policy for restricted content is another line that explicitly states that “apps promot[ing] sex-related entertainment, escort services, or
other services that may be interpreted as providing sexual acts in exchange for compensation” are not allowed. Guidelines for development and deployment can become tricky when it comes to handling any amount of sexual content. Twitter is able to host sexually explicit content on their own social media platform in part because it is not promoting the content, it does not “verify” or monetize creators of pornographic content and the platform itself is not providing any financial exchanges between explicit content creators and their consumers. On the other hand, OnlyFans is a direct producer-to-consumer platform that handles transactions on the site, creating a hard barrier against ambitions to expand itself beyond web platforms. If OnlyFans decides to pursue this direction, it would not be the first— nor the last—platform to dramatically change itself, shunning the sex industries that bolstered it to a massive scale. OnlyFans may also receive the same fate as those that fell before it. Tumblr, a social media and blogging website known for its not-safe-for-work content, banned adult content on Dec. 17, 2018 and, since then, the site’s traffic has dropped nearly 30%. Many users and content creators that used the site flocked to Twitter and Patreon. While OnlyFans may be able to ban content, the explicit content creators will most likely take their web traffic with them. In order to discuss OnlyFans’ decision, the elephant in the room must also be acknowledged—Pornhub, the world’s most popular pornographic website. On Dec. 10, 2020, Visa and MasterCard ended support for Pornhub after confirming the presence of unlawful content on their platform. This came just six
days after a New York Times article was published revolving around Pornhub’s missteps in properly combating child pornography. Even when Pornhub subsequently removed over 70% of its content in order to only allow content from verified users, Visa and MasterCard continued to refuse any negotiation with Pornhub. Any payment on the site now must be done through direct bank transfers or cryptocurrency. That was an ominous warning for what could happen to OnlyFans if the company did not comply. There are no further details given to what “pressure from banking partners and payment providers” means, but it is plausible that credit card companies threatened to cut off support for the platform, causing such a dramatic shift in a desperate act of survival. However, the corporate survival of OnlyFans comes at an even greater cost to the very people that supported the platform from its advent. What are these content creators expected to do now? Where will they go online, and what kind of impact does this have for consumers and creators alike? “As anti-porn organizations celebrate, we brace ourselves for the crisis this will likely cause,” stated The Adult Performance Artists Guild Labor Union. “Workers in our industry have families to care for, and this change will push many into potential homelessness.” Alternative websites do exist, such as JustForFans, which functions similarly to OnlyFans but is advertised and conducted as a porn website. There is also no simple way to transfer any content accrued on OnlyFans, nor is it possible to transfer any subscriptions that content creators and consumers have accrued. For now, there is little that can be done to change current circumstances. KELSEY STEWART
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SCIENCE & TECH
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