Years later, the relevance of OnlyBans endures
Making money online should be a relatively simple process. You provide your goods and services, those interested purchase them, and there’s usually some division of the profits between you and the distributor.
What happens when you throw moral objections, political obstacles, and intentional obfuscation for the sake of exploitation into the mix? That’s what OnlyBans seeks to explore, and the results speak volumes regarding the conditions online sex workers face. Though the issues that it examines are real, it manages to tackle them with humor and sincerity.
The premise of the online game isn’t particularly complicated. You’re hoping to earn $200 to pay your gas and water bills in 6 weeks. With each fan on the online platform netting you $10, it shouldn’t take you long in theory. In reality, things are a little more complex than they initially appear.
OnlyBans illustrates the ways online sex workers have had to band together to teach each other how to navigate the industry. Doing favors for each other such as “share4share” is illustrated, info on how to prevent your images from being stolen is shared, and it’s shown how some workers are “avoiding shadowbanning by identifying as ‘male’ on their profile.”
Similarly, workers in the industry have had to rally together to fight against many of the issues brought up in the game. A few are listed on the About page, including Hacking//Hustling, which is a “collective of sex workers, survivors, and accomplices working at the intersection of tech and social justice to interrupt state surveillance and violence facilitated by technology.”
As I played, it became evident that there were multiple attempts to get me screwed out of my money, and they were coming from all angles. At
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