The European Commission’s DG CNECT was a no-show at a panel happening alongside the Berlin Porn Film Festival on 22 October, "an independent, non commercial, not publicly funded film festival centered around the topics of sexuality, politics, feminism, gender diversity, post porn and body politics."
It was to be a "historic moment" for the adult creator industry, Ana Ornelas, who represented the Digital Intimacy Coalition at the panel, told Euractiv. The industry has been asking for a seat at the table in the implementation of the DSA, which has increasingly veered into porn platforms. Major platforms have been designated as VLOPs by the Commission, meaning they have to fulfill similar requirements to the likes of Facebook and X.
The Commission has sent official requests for information to some of these platforms, and has signaled to adult content creator groups that they will meet with them, Ornelas said.
Following the Berlin kerfuffle, the plot has thickened. Two Italian MEPs from the European Conservatives and Reformists group, Paolo Inselvini and Elena Donazzan, are calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the matter, reported news agency ANSA on Tuesday.
The two MEPs did not respond to Euractiv's request for comment.
The Commission cited scheduling conflicts for not showing up at the panel, according to MLex. They sent a statement to be read out instead.
However, just before the last-minute change, a women's rights organization called The Portuguese Platform for Women’s Rights (PpDM), issued an open letter expressing "strong opposition" to the Commission's participation to the event. In their view, "the harms of this industry [porn] are systemic and cannot be reformed or sanitised."
“‘Sanitise’ refers to the superficial attempts to make the pornography industry appear less harmful without addressing the root issues of exploitation and violence. Pornography is fundamentally incompatible with human dignity. Attempts to ‘regulate’ this industry, akin to ‘regulating’ slavery, whether by regulating the age of consumers or improving recording settings, do not eliminate its inherent violations,” PpDM President Ana Sofia Fernandes and Board Member Diana Pinto told Eractiv in a statement.
Ornelas said that the adult content industry present at the conference does not only include porn, but a wide variety of stakeholders ranging from sexual education to sex tech.
PpDM did not respond to Euractiv's request for comment.
The letter was posted on X by no other than UN Special Rapporteur for Violence Against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem on 20 October.
For Ornelas, this was a "missed opportunity" and disappointing, but the creators “will create more opportunities.”
In their view, they are fighting for similar things to womens' rights organisations. For example, "the performers are the first ones who want to fight gender-based violence in the porn industry" because they are the ones that have to go through it, she said.
Alessandro Polidoro, a lawyer who works with the adult content industry as well as victims of gender-based violence, agrees: "This is a great opportunity to bring together anti-porn organizations and the sex-positive community," who "are both united in their fight against misogyny and 'rape culture', and they are both very aware of the damages made by Big Tech."
Their disagreement revolves "around the stigma associated with sex work and," but times have changed, Polidoro said. Society is ready for a frank conversation about sex and its up to EU institutions to facilitate it, he said.
