It’s no secret that Instagram is tightening restrictions on adult content, but lewd OnlyFans creator Silfy Star also found Twitter and Patreon’s guidelines contradictory. In her second guest post, Silfy shares why she thinks lewd creators should diversify their content.

What is a lewd creator? Like many terms that have been co-opted by online culture, there are multiple interpretations of the word lewd. It is widely understood, however, that a lewd content creator is someone who creates erotic content without showing full nudity.

There is a fine line between lewd and pornographic. This is where issues arise and why there is such a struggle when these kinds of creators use social media and crowdfunding platforms as each person has their own definition of what they consider to be pornography.

How lewd creators grow their following Social media is necessary for any content creator to grow, and the top sites for this are currently Instagram and Twitter. Instagram has been “cleaning up” their platform for a while now, removing risqué accounts and blacklisting certain tags. They have even taken the step to prohibit ALL nudity even in the artistic form (apart from post-mastectomy and breastfeeding). Now, these are issues that aren’t exclusive to lewd creators and there are a plethora of problems with this platform that are beyond the scope of this blog post. For now, let’s just say that while Instagram is a major way that lewd artists get their name out, it also restricts them. I believe that lewd creators will move away from Instagram, as accounts continue to be banned and deboosted. Twitter is not much better, and personally, I find their guidelines contradictory:

Lewd creator or not, this terminology is very loose. If you define adult content as content that is “intended to cause sexual arousal,” that could be interpreted in a huge number of ways. How many twerking, bouncing, UwU videos are plastered all over Twitter? How many pics of “check out my new [insert skimpy clothing here]” are out there? Presuming most or all of these creators are intending to titillate their viewers to some extent, these regulations are not being enforced much… for now.

How do lewd creators monetise their work Currently, the two biggest sites for lewd creators are OnlyFans and Patreon. Let’s start with Patreon, a crowdfunding platform with a variety of features for creators of all types. For many years, Patreon held the torch as the place to be for lewd artists, but a review of their terms of use indicates that it might not be safe for these creators.

Again, how do you truly define this? Patreon offers creators the option to mark their pages as adult content. The idea of a lewd creator with an 18+ page, not being “sexually gratifying or intimate in nature” is simply silly. Again, fortunately, this rule isn’t being widely enforced yet. But it’s existence should be cause for concern enough as should they choose to shut down your page they have every right to do so and you will have no leg to stand on. A lot of lewd creators are seeing a decline in Patronage, myself included. However, I see this as an opportunity to redo my Patreon and also diversify myself and my business.