Understanding Twitter/X Advocacy Framing for Sex Work Decriminalization: A Sequential Multi-Method Qualitative Study

Abstract Social media plays a crucial role in contemporary social movements, including advocacy for sex work decriminalization in the United States. In this study, I examined the framing of sex work decriminalization on public Twitter/X using a sequential multi-method qualitative design. Through analysis of 474 tweets collected in 2021, I identified ten prominent advocacy frames: safety/anti-violence, labor and human rights, “this is what sex workers want,” anti-sex-trafficking, anti-intersectional marginalization, anti-policing, evidence-based policy making, what decriminalization is not (clarification of related terms), bodily autonomy, and harm reduction. Recognizing that public tweets come from users with diverse backgrounds, who may or may not be directly involved in decriminalization advocacy, I subsequently interviewed 13 sex worker rights activists with Twitter advocacy experience to gain insider perspectives and contextualize the identified advocacy frames. Activists contested several, such as critiquing the anti-sex-trafficking frame for deviating from labor rights arguments. While some critiqued the bodily autonomy frame for obscuring survival sex realities, others grounded it in resistance to the criminalization of marginalized sexualities. Both perspectives, however, converged on concerns about the invisibilization of sex workers with marginalized identities. Overall, the findings suggest the need for more critically reflexive framing that moves beyond merely promoting persuasive messaging and instead asks what political visions and assumptions such framing messages might advance. Although sex workers and activists are better positioned for this important policy framing work, structural silencing through criminalization, racism, and digital surveillance may prevent many from doing so; consequently, the most visible frames online may disproportionately reflect the perspectives of those with greater digital access and safety.