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FetLife

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FetLife
FetLife logo, a heart with horns
Screenshot
John Kopanas' user page
Type of site
Adult social networking
Available inEnglish
FoundedJanuary 3, 2008;16 years ago(2008-01-03)
HeadquartersVancouver, British Columbia,Canada
Founder(s)John Kopanas
ParentBitLove, Inc.
URLfetlife
RegistrationRequired
Current statusActive
Written inRuby on Rails

FetLifeis asocial networkingwebsite that serves people interested inBDSM,fetishism,andkink.It distinguishes itself from competitors by emphasizing itself as a social network rather than adating site.[1]

History

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FetLife was launched on January 3, 2008, by John Kopanas (also known by his usernameJohn Baku), asoftware engineerinMontreal,Quebec.[2][3][4]Frustrated by attempts to find women who had the same sexual interests as he did, Baku created a website in 2007 called "FriendsWithFetishes". While working on release 2.0 of FriendsWithFetishes, Baku decided to launch it as a separate site and named it FetLife.[5]James Golick served aschief technology officer.[6]In 2009 Baku received the Community Choice (Man) Award as part of thePantheon of Leather Awards.[7]

In January 2017, FetLife deleted hundreds of groups - including anything with the wordsblood,needles,rapeandincest- and temporarily shut down the ability to create new groups following pressure from their payment processor.[8][9]The action by the payment processor was criticized by theElectronic Frontier Foundationascensorship.[10]

Features

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All members have apersonal profilewith the option to display one or moresexual orientations,D/sroles and fetishes from respective lists. Profiles can also list relationships with other members.[11]

Members can create and join groups which function asinternet forums,senddirect messagesto one or more other members and advertise and organize events. Members can also postblogentries, photographs and videos, either publicly or only to members in the poster's friends list, along withcommentson other members' posts.[12]

The search feature is deliberately limited to prevent members from finding users with specific characteristics, such as age andgender,and blog posts can only be searched via tags specified by the poster.[13]

Criticism

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In 2012, FetLife found itself at the center of a controversy regarding its policy that users pledge not to "make criminal accusations against another member in a public forum".[14]This policy has been objected to by users on the basis that censoring posts ofsexual assaultvictims that namepredatoryusers prevents them from warning others.[15][16][17][18]FetLife's reasoning behind this policy is that it allows users to accuse others of a crime, which could belibelousif the allegations are false or unprovable.[19][20]

In April 2017, FetLife was accessed by Brendt Christensen, the killer ofYingying Zhang,to explore discussion forums on topics relating to abduction and kidnapping.[21]Following this and other similar incidents, FetLife removed several hundred fetishes.[22]

Racism controversy

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While the site'sterms of serviceprohibit promotingracismor hate, FetLife has faced criticism for not adequately addressing the increasing prevalence of racist content. During theGeorge Floyd protests,members reported an increase in racisthate speechandextremistcontent, including "white power"symbols, posts glorifyingNaziimagery, and discussions promotingwhite supremacyandantisemitism.Additionally, the inclusion of "race play"on the" official "fetish list has divided members, with some defending the practice as a consensual exploration ofhistorical traumaand others criticizing it as a form of racism and fetishization.[23]

References

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  1. ^"FetLife Home Page".Archivedfrom the original on May 10, 2013.RetrievedMay 11,2013.
  2. ^"JohnBaku".FetLife.RetrievedMay 8,2024.
  3. ^Bell, Niko (February 9, 2017)."What just happened to kink social network FetLife is a bad sign for web freedom".Daily Xtra.Archived fromthe originalon July 3, 2017.In an apologetic post to the FetLife community, founder John Kopanas — better known on the site by his username JohnBaku — said the restrictions were the only way out of an existential threat
  4. ^Zanin, Andrea (September 4, 2008)."Facebook for the kinky: Montreal-based FetLife networks fetishists of the world".Montreal Mirror.Archived fromthe originalon June 30, 2012.RetrievedOctober 18,2009.
  5. ^Baku, John (January 10, 2008)."FetLife Launches - The First Social Network for Kinksters".Sexual Deviants Living In A Web 2.0 World.Archived fromthe originalon February 28, 2012.RetrievedJanuary 2,2013.
  6. ^Golick, James (September 5, 2012)."Moving On".jamesgolick.Archived fromthe originalon July 4, 2017.He told me about his growing company, and a month later, the consulting firm I'd been running was closed, our office vacant, and I had joined BitLove (the company that runs FetLife — which was then known as Protose) as CTO.
  7. ^"Pantheon of Leather Awards All Time Recipients - The Leather Journal".theleatherjournal.Archived fromthe originalon December 28, 2020.RetrievedDecember 28,2020.
  8. ^Kale, Sirin (January 25, 2017)."Kinky Social Network Fetlife Deletes Thousands Of Fetishes to Stay Online".Vice.Archivedfrom the original on May 27, 2017.RetrievedApril 9,2017.
  9. ^Baku, John (February 6, 2013)."The Next Steps - The Big Four".FetLife.
  10. ^Malcolm, Jeremy (March 15, 2017)."Payment Processors are Still Policing Your Sex Life, and the Latest Victim is FetLife".RetrievedMay 7,2024.
  11. ^Montgomery, Maria (March 22, 2024)."FetLife: How does this social networking site work?".Age Times.RetrievedJune 3,2024.
  12. ^"FetLife - Safety Tips".eSafety Commissioner.February 19, 2024.RetrievedJune 3,2024.
  13. ^Baku, John (2009)."FetLife, now with improved search".FetLife.
  14. ^"Terms of Use".FetLife.April 22, 2016. Archived fromthe originalon September 26, 2016.You agree that, while using BitLove's Products and Services, you will not [...] Make criminal accusations against another member in a public forum.
  15. ^Clark-Flory, Tracy (June 3, 2012)."A BDSM Blacklist".Salon.Archivedfrom the original on January 1, 2013.RetrievedJanuary 2,2013.
  16. ^J.M. Baker, Katie (November 8, 2012)."Kink Community Tells Sexual Assault Victims It's All Their Fault".Jezebel.Archivedfrom the original on November 10, 2012.RetrievedJanuary 7,2013.
  17. ^White, Rachel R. (November 16, 2012)."The Story of 'No': S&M Sex Clubs Sprout Up on Ivy Campuses, and Coercion Becomes an Issue".Observer Media.Archivedfrom the original on February 14, 2015.RetrievedFebruary 2,2015.
  18. ^Morris, David Z. (March 3, 2015)."How Kink's Largest Social-Networking Site Fails Its Users".The Atlantic.Archivedfrom the original on March 5, 2015.RetrievedMarch 7,2015.
  19. ^Flox, Anaiis (August 27, 2011)."FetLife Is Not Safe For Users".Sex and the 405.Archived fromthe originalon December 30, 2012.RetrievedJanuary 2,2013.
  20. ^Weinberg, Jill D. (May 31, 2016).Consensual Violence: Sex, Sports, and the Politics of Injury.University of California Press.pp. 71–72.ISBN9780520290655.Archivedfrom the original on August 20, 2018.RetrievedJuly 3,2017.
  21. ^"'Nobody saw this coming': Arrest in Chinese scholar's disappearance stuns U. of I. community ".The Chicago Tribune.July 1, 2017. Archived fromthe originalon July 1, 2017.RetrievedJuly 1,2017.Authorities also searched Christensen's home and seized electronics, including his phone, according to the affidavit. The phone's search history revealed visits to a bondage and sadomasochism fetish website called FetLife and a forum called "Abduction 101," as well as subthreads titled "Perfect abduction fantasy" and "planning a kidnapping," according to the affidavit
  22. ^The Associated Press(July 4, 2017)."Man who tapped 'Abduction 101' forum denied bond in kidnapping, suspected murder of Chinese scholar".The Japan Times.Archived fromthe originalon July 3, 2017.RetrievedJuly 3,2017.FetLife prohibited hundreds of fetish categories this year after it was cited in several criminal cases, Baku said in a February online note to members.
  23. ^Feast, Fancy (October 16, 2020)."Users On A Site For Kinky People Say The Racism Has Become Unsustainable".BuzzFeed News.RetrievedAugust 29,2023.
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