Whorephobia on Dating Platforms: Ethical Platform Governance

Abstract Dating platforms generally prohibit commercial sex on their platforms and warn users that they will be deplatformed if they engage in the sex market on them. Sex workers, however, report experiencing deplatforming even when they are seeking personal, non-commercial relationships on dating platforms, which raises complaints of whorephobia. The article offers a conceptual analysis of whorephobia and proposes revisions to the concept. It argues that deplatforming sex workers qua daters constitutes wrongful discrimination on three influential accounts which raises the need for justification of the practice. Potential justifications for excluding sex workers are considered but found unpersuasive. The article finds one exception, namely, that dating platforms are morally justified in prohibiting sex work on their platforms due to an incompatibility between sex work and the dating sphere. Ultimately, morality seems to require that dating platforms permit sex workers qua daters. The paper concludes by proposing promising platform governance solutions for ethically responsible platform moderation.