Are you having problems with Manyvids? Yesterday it was announced that AVN Stars will be shutting down completely. Monetization ended earlier, it wasn’t exactly surprising that AVN would be nixing the project altogether. Before this set off models in the adult industry though, creators were all over Twitter in a flurry over what seemed to be terms of service changes.
Problem One
Manyvids cited that releases would be needed for locations of content. Not stating whether or not this would be needed to sell content or not, the bird app blew up with scared and confused models. Rightfully so too, as this isn’t standard in our industry for platforms to require this. We do want to clarify that it IS standard for any commercial production to obtain location releases to cover them from lawsuits, but indie platforms have never asked for this from any accounts posting content.
As models outcries for clarification grew, Manyvids then told those writing in that a release is not required… but this flies in the face of any common sense. Most agreements have a clause about commercial use and obtaining permission. Few will find themselves slammed with this and the few cases ever brought up involve famous locations/very distinctive. Why not just state in the terms of service that if a property owner contacts Manyvids, they will reach out to you for a permission slip for locational use?
Problem Two
Sadly this is one of the many problems with Manyvids. A few weeks back, they changed the layout of their site completely. Originally it was absolutely hideous for those who were not logged in, today it is not much better. Showing the categories that we have to assume they want to push… most would be billed as SFW/safe for work. This is how it begins. Sites build on the backs of the adult industry and slowly push adult creators out, and that is the fear of the community.
Manyvids has a lengthy track record of not listening to their community unless the backlash hits insane levels. This push to be known for ‘Music’ and ‘Health/Fitness’ is certainly getting that. After refreshing their adult section 42 times across many different devices, our staff also saw that the SFW category was at the top despite other categories moving around. It is clear that there is some sort of push for Manyvids to distance themselves from the adult industry.
We believe Aerie of WebcamStartUp said it best in this tweet: https://twitter.com/AerieSaunders/status/1487845899783094276.
While there could be a perfectly good explanation for WHY a platform may want to start pushing more safe-for-work content, it further stigmatizes sex work for platforms built for us to begin pushing us to the back. Not being transparent as to why you are making this move also worries the community that you built your business on. Models deserve to know if and why they need to adjust their business plans. We hope that the problems with Manyvids diminish and that they will be more forth coming with models. Only time will tell.
