Meta ‘wipes out’ grownup stars’ Instagram accounts in enormous ‘censorship’ crackdown
Meta has come under fire after wiping out the Instagram accounts of UK sex worker-led arts groups, erasing more than 52,000 followers overnight in a shock crackdown that campaigners
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has sparked outrage after wiping out the accounts of groups led by sex workers. The social media platform is accused of erasing more than 52,000 followers overnight in a sweeping crackdown.
The sudden purge, which hit fully compliant, award-winning arts collectives with no warning or explanation, has left performers and advocates furious. “Meta deleting our account destroys six years of work building a community that exists both online and in real life,” said Maedb Joy, Sexquisite’s founder.
Sexquisite is an award-winning UK performing arts company that creates paid creative opportunities for sex workers through theatre, cabaret, and community events.
Founded in 2019, it aims to celebrate and support sex worker artists while challenging stigma through art and activism. Sexquisite has spent six years building paid creative opportunities for sex workers across London, Manchester, and Bristol.
The crackdown saw 26,000 followers disappear from @sexquisite.events, alongside Cybertease, UK Sex Worker Pride, Sexquisite Podcast – totalling more than 52,000 followers lost across the organisation as a whole.
The move comes after The Guardian reported that Meta has removed or restricted accounts of more than 50 organisations worldwide – including abortion access providers, queer groups and reproductive health organisations – in what campaigners describe as one of the “biggest waves of censorship” on its platforms in years.
“Meta deleting our account is a direct attack on our visibility, safety, and livelihood”
“This isn’t just about one deleted account – it’s part of a much bigger pattern,” Maedb Martha Dimitratou, Executive Director of Repro Uncensored – the global nonprofit tracking these deletions, said.
“Around the world, queer nightlife spaces, sex worker-led projects, feminist organisations, and reproductive health providers are being restricted, shadowbanned, or permanently removed.
“Meta keeps saying this is about safety, but the people being silenced are the ones providing community care, harm reduction, medical information, and safer working environments.”
April, founder of Cybertease, said: “We are one of the first models of this kind [adult content] in the UK. Losing our platform removes access to a safer working environment for dancers who rely on us.
“Meta deleting our account is a direct attack on our visibility, safety, and livelihood.” Maedb said: “Our Instagram is how we sell tickets.
“It’s how we find new audiences, collaborate with performers, and sustain the work we do. The nightlife industry is already struggling. Without online reach, shows become financially unstable, performers lose income, and community spaces disappear”.
“Everything was fully compliant”
She added: “Our Instagram was mainly photos from shows, always performers in stage costumes only, because we are acutely aware of how strict Instagram’s rules are. We shared safe-for-work cabaret clips, event posters, and advocacy for sex worker artists.
“Everything was fully compliant. Alongside this, we did a fair amount of online activism around sex workers’ rights and safety.
“Despite this, our account with 26,000 followers was permanently deleted for ‘not complying with community guidelines’, with no meaningful explanation. The reaction was beyond devastating.
“It felt like being completely erased, as though six years of cultural work, community building, and history had never existed at all. Instagram was our main way to reach audiences, pay performers, promote tours, and document the work we do.
“We genuinely believe we are making work that creates cultural and social change, but with one click, Meta can make us disappear and devalue everything we have built.” Accounts removed in the same timeframe include Cybertease, an all-bodies, all-genders socialist strip club founded during the first UK lockdown as a safe alternative to exploitative venues where dancers pay to work, and UK Sex Worker Pride, the first national celebration for sex workers, which ran 10 events across the UK in 2025, reaching 1,500 people.
Maedb noted: “What’s striking is the double standard. Pop culture constantly borrows sex worker aesthetics and language without consequence.
“Lily Allen has spoken publicly about Only Fans and sex work economics. Sabrina Carpenter uses sex worker imagery and strip-club aesthetics in mainstream pop visuals.
“Lingerie brands like Honey Birdette run overtly sexual ads across Meta platforms every day. Those accounts stay live.
“Meanwhile, sex worker-led arts organisations like ours are deleted for promoting theatre, cabaret, and community events. The issue is not sexual content, it’s who is allowed to exist visibly. When sex work is aestheticised by celebrities or brands, it’s acceptable.
“When sex workers speak for themselves, it’s punished.” She further stated: “The most unexpected consequence is how quickly it threatens people’s livelihoods.
“Instagram was how performers found work, how audiences found us, how sex workers found community and resources, and how we sold tickets. Losing it instantly disrupted income for artists across multiple UK cities.
“The bizarre part is being accused of harm while doing harm reduction. We lost the ability to communicate with our community, while Meta continues to host content that genuinely exploits bodies for profit.
“This is not about safety”
After Sexquisite’s Instagram was deleted, their backup account was also swiftly removed, forcing them to rely on mailing lists, websites, WhatsApp, word of mouth, and in-person events to reach their community. They created a new, less explicit account under a different name and managed to keep touring and selling out shows thanks to the founder’s personal Instagram.
Meta’s only response, the company said, has been to claim the deletions were due to “human exploitation” policies.
Maedb concluded: “The response has been a blanket assertion rather than engagement with the facts. This is not about safety.
“It is about automated enforcement, stigma, and a refusal to distinguish between exploitation and sex worker-led culture, advocacy, and art.”
A Meta spokesperson previously told The Guardian: “Every organisation and individual on our platforms is subject to the same set of rules, and any claims of enforcement based on group affiliation or advocacy are baseless,”
The Daily Star has also reached out to Meta for comment.
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