End of service in the US

We are sad to announce we will end service in the US within the next 10 days. Yeah, not cool.

For US advertisers:

• We recommend you list on Slixa - they have built a high-quality platform covering the major cities in the US & Canada. It is a service being run by people who care about their advertisers, providing leads from high-caliber clients and they have strong testimonials from their current advertisers. Please check them out.
• Sorry, but your account, listing and associated data will be deleted within 10 days. If you also have a listing in another country, only your listing in the US and its associated data will be deleted.
• If you want to keep your data make a copy on your computer or phone of the description on your listing, public questions & answers, reviews and download any images.

For US users / visitors:

• Sorry we won't be able to help any more. Try Slixa
• We will try to identify US-only users. Those accounts and any associated will be deleted and we will send an email to confirm.

Why are we doing this?

FOSTA/SESTA came from an initiative to combat 'human trafficking' and 'exploitation' (which we, you, and pretty much everyone agrees are very bad things). They were already illegal under US law, but the new legislation added a lot of other things which made life difficult for independent adult sexworkers and any online platform they might use. A few very brave members of Congress and senators voted against it because of the problems they identified in the bills - but politics being politics - they were not fixed. So a 'dumb' law got passed. In the current environment, we are not sure that the challenges to it (like this one) will succeed, so decided to suspend service.

It is making life difficult for US law enforcement to do their jobs, there's a good write up here. It's also making life hard for real people - here's one reaction from an advertiser to our announcement:

This is where my main source of income came from. I'm heartbroken. [...] Rent is due soon and my car payment [...]

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Statement: since FOSTA/SESTA, this site has not billed a single dollar to any advertiser or user, nor has received any other financial income or benefit based on any activity in the US. We assumed a large cost in that period to continue providing service in in terms of listings moderation, advertiser and user support, and costs for bandwidth and hosting.

We maintained service to help advertisers avoid costs (e.g. avoiding enriching intermediaries) and so they could exercise their rights to free speech under the US Constitution.

Individuals advertising services on the platform range from people in a good economic position to those close to or in poverty. We do know from some advertisers that we helped them get 'to a better place'. Many others have asked us to "please carry on and don't stop the site". Unfortunately, we know that suspending service in the US will make life worse any advertiser who is already having trouble surviving. We doubt many legislators who voted for the law understood the real-world effects it would have, or that most US citizens would be in favor of it.

The main justifications for the new law in the US were child exploitation and human trafficking (even if existing laws already covered those things). We have processes in place to identify this type of behavior, stop listings of that type and have never got a complaint for the US about anything like this. Stopping exploitation and trafficking is something everyone who cares about people and building better societies completely agrees with. Confusing these things with the much more complicated debate about what individuals are allowed to do (or not) is not useful. Often, media coverage of these issues often does not look at the root causes, the real effects on people or why the law got passed in the first place. Nor does it call to account the law-makers to do their jobs and revise legislation to actually help people.

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We will make a donation to EFF on the behalf of common sense in the world. In the same way we have donated over the past years to a number of projects to help women and children in vulnerable situations, single mothers trying to escape exploitation and other good causes.

Learn more here https://stopsesta.org

Service problems

UPDATE: 02:46 GMT 20/01/18: We are still under a DDoS attack. We have service resumed, although it is running a little slow. We will continue to make a series of changes to mitigate the impact.

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Since this morning we have been experiencing some issues on the site. The cause of this is some 'amusing' people sending millions of requests to flood the service. Our servers felt like this:

We have restored service, but they are still going pretty hard so are causing some delays in returning pages.

We are working on it, but service may be interrupted as we make changes. Sorry!

Payments back | US listings

We now have payments working again. Apologies for the disruption this has caused in the last months. Our payment processor suspended service without notice and it took us a while to get another solution in place.

If you have any problems, please let us know.

US listings

Due to new legislation in the US, we have taken the decision to phase out US listings on the site. We're sorry about the impact this will have on our US advertisers and their income and safety, but we don't currently see any other option. More information will come soon.

Laura Lee RIP

Laura Lee was a lady who took a stand and talked out for the right to decide. She acknowledged that there were many abuses in sex-work, but defended the right for women who chose to do it. In June 2015, legislation in Northern Ireland made it illegal to pay for sex. Her arguments about how that type of legislation made sex-workers more vulnerable need to continue to be heard.

Academic studies, observation in the real world and common sense all indicate that the illegalization of sex-work does not achieve a positive outcome.

There is a brutally stupid blind-spot in public discourse which refuses to recognize the difference between 'exploitation' (minors, slavery, trafficking, etc.) and an economic choice. Even when it comes to an 'economic choice', there are different shades of grey - it appears that people with economic means still choose to do sex work.

Instead of prohibition, legislators need to focus on how to deal with the real crimes: trafficking, slavery and the exploitation of minors. Of course, these are harder to identify...

Laura Lee Obituary

The Internet makes sex-work safer

An academic study from the University of Leicester in the UK has highlighted some interesting points about what matters for sex-workers. They claim that Beyond the Gaze (BtG) is the largest study to date about safety, working practices, attitudes and regulation.

One of the key findings was that online services were "....of considerable importance in developing services, enabling independent working and greater control over working circumstances, and improving safety strategies." The BtG study also, "confirms that levels of violent crime encountered by internet-based sex workers are considerably lower than those reported in studies of street-based workers.

Although some of these conclusions may be obvious to people working in the industry, it is good to see this type of academic study. Quantifying and describing real-world experiences will help influence public opinion and may help politicians understand and adapt legislation for the general good.

Website | Download study

Bad guys alert

We wrote a while ago about people trying to scam Massage Republic users.

We now need to add another alert. We have just had a couple of reports that advertisers are being contacted both:

• by phone, and,
• using fake email addresses like massagerepublic[something]@gmail.com

They are asking for for an account registration fee to be sent to them (Bkash has been one method they have used).

We don't:

• have a registration fee
• use Bkash
• call people asking for cash, email people asking for cash (if you want to upgrade, do so onsite please
• use any email that is not from @massagerepublic.com

We do know that it can be difficult to know if an email is genuine - so if you have any doubts, contact us and we will assist.

Freedom vs.Oppression?

We live in a weird world. In some ways, individuals are more free than ever to make choices. In others, much less.

The US spends billions each year on pot eradication, then semi-legalizes in some places? Liberal places like the Netherlands and Spain make it legal, then it gets less legal as laws get changed again. Marijuana is simple compared to the complexities of the personal services market....

Massage Republic works to do one thing: help people who want to offer services to do so, at no-cost or lower-cost than other methods.

We started with a 'free' option for providers - alongside the upgraded options - and hope to keep it forever. In total, we have generated more than 5 million contact inquiries to independents. That is a lot of people off the streets and a lot less risk for everyone involved.

Our paying customers are only paying 5% of their gross sales to upgrade listings on the site. Massage Republic has been a great help to many freelancers and independent businesses.

We do what we can to fight unfair or criminal practices on-site. We do extra verification in many cases and are very careful with listings where the provider listed could be underage. We have already contributed real cash and time to programs and charities working to help victims of exploitation and trafficking.

Safety First

Common sense means most people working in this industry let other people know where they are going when possible. The problem is this is often not possible.

If you use an Android phone, you might want to consider a new application that has been launched by Google, Trusted Contacts. It looks like they will be launching an iOS version for iPhones soon and you can register to get a notification when it's available on the site.

You can share your location when you want to, for instance when meeting with a client. There is also a feature where someone you have nominated a trusted contact can - if they are worried about you - ask for a location share and will be able to see where your phone was last located if you don't respond within five minutes. 

There are - obviously - some privacy implications, especially as the share happens automatically unless you respond. Make sure you read the instructions!

More sense in 17 mins than several millenia

Wow, this is a supremely enlightened talk. It properly addresses the real issues and explains many things that people do need to understand. The focus on 'rights' and especially sex workers' rights is so important.


The world is changing, every person like Toni Mac who speaks out and every organisation like SWOU makes a massive difference. Each individual who doesn't get arrested is a win. Each individual who can report violence saves a beating or even a death. These are not small wins - each one really matters. Share this talk please.

A big thank you kiss to reviewers

Nothing makes us happier than to see other people happy. Real reviews seem to having a very positive effect on what we can do in terms of quality.

The efforts made by many Massage Republic users to leave reviews is making a difference for everyone. We have received many messages actually pointing this out - many are from people who didn't feel comfortable making a review themselves - but wanted to say thanks.

When we see something like this:

Girl is the same in the pics ....but complete starfish experience...absolutely no interest from her side ....her mission was to finishing as quickly as possible... - SteveDubai

We know this is useful information for other users...

When we see something like this:

I had some additional spare time on my hands so decided to take in one or two more sessions. So, yet another young lady from massagerepublic (has changed my life !! lol) - georgeunited10

We get to know we're doing something right!

We hope to upgrade the review experience and the profile pages for users in the next months, and make it more fun to contribute and share experiences.

Fraud and scams

It has recently been brought to our notice that some people are pretending to be 'us' and trying to trick advertisers into paying for services (or maybe providing them for free?).

Hello! Just want to check something. I got a call from someone pretending to be a photographer from your website and saying that he has to take the pictures for me because you have a new policy . He sounded very strange...
Thank you!

We will never call you to make a request like this. If you ever have a query, please get in touch with us directly.

In the same way, if you ever receive an email which looks suspicious from us please send it to us. Emails are easy to fake and we would like to know about it. We are always concerned about our advertiser's safety, so any information or tips you can provide will always be appreciated.

Fake reviews

If you are doing fake reviews, you do risk getting your account blocked and also any associated accounts blocked. Don't try our patience.

Abuse

Some advertisers are trying to abuse the system to get more coverage. You cannot post from multiple accounts, repost or try and manipulate the system. It doesn't matter if you are a paying customer or not, all accounts will be blocked.

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Thanks to everyone else (the massive majority) who behaves well and continues to make the site a safer place for everyone on it.

Politicians and Hookers

It seems to be some constant theme - the people who complain most vocally about the escort industry also get into the papers about it... This is obviously a self-fulfilling prophecy as a politian caught paying for time (with a hint of sexual sevices) will get into trouble. Unless they are Silvio Berlusconi, which might have meant several re-relections in Italy...

[not to say anyone in the images above, including Sr. Berlusconi would ever be involved in anything to do with this post. In fact, we are 'sure' that those re-elections were purely on merit and based on his performance in office and the policies presented in his manifesto].

Public debate and legislation about the offering of sexual services for money is basically dead, stupid and insane. The problem is the following:

• Some individuals choose to provide their services because it suits them to do so compared to other economic options.
• Some individuals enjoy their profession (and some really enjoy it, just because).
• There are others who offer their services because of real financial hardship, whether from circumstance or addiction. This is a really tough place for them. The only thing we can offer is a safer way of offering services. Society, at this point, is responsible to help with a safety-net or medical assistance with addiction.
• There are individuals (mostly young girls from less-developed countries) which are exploited for this purpose. This is plainly wrong - pretty evil - and we work to make sure they cannot be advertised on the site and provide feedback mechanisms to signal the problem.

The public debate is always about trafficking, people enslaved into prostitution. This is unhelpful and does not address the real problems.

Prohibition is not a solution. Real, effective policies to combat human-slavery, addiction and social exclusion are solutions. Dump the headlines and go to the roots of the problem in society. This is an appeal to any politician or journalist - keep it real; and don't let us find out you did something bad later... Starting with 19 Politicians Who Were Caught with Prostitutes.

Honesty in public debate is a starting point. Freedom of choice is a natural right.