In May this year, under the guise of making the UK ‘the safest place in the world to go online’ the government passed the Online Safety Bill which removes any content deemed as “having, or indirectly having, a significant adverse physical or psychological impact on an adult.” The Bill screams censorship, and of course, sex workers are one group in particular who will bear the brunt of this new legislation. For sex workers, social media has become a place that must be very carefully traversed if one is to remain safe online .

In our heavily surveillanced society, censorship is a real and serious issue that targets left-field thinkers and minority communities - specifically our rights to free speech and the ability to create and access support and communities online. Sex workers have historically experienced violence due to censorship and the stigma that ensues from religious and socio-political stigma. In this panel, we will look at the history of sex work and censorship, the future of sex work and social media and what we can all learn from sex workers liberation movements around the world.