False allegations on social media
September 13, 2022
The safety of our community is vital to us. We will continue to prioritize the security and well-being of our creators.
Dangerous and conspiratorial disinformation began circulating on social media recently, alleging that Patreon has hosted child sexual abuse material (CSAM). We want to let all of our creators and patrons know that these claims are unequivocally false and set the record straight.
The disinformation stemmed from a single fraudulent claim on a job posting site, which onlookers inaccurately linked to small-scale staffing changes we made last week to our security organization. This has led to a conspiracy that Patreon knowingly hosts illegal and child-exploitative material.
First, let us be crystal clear: Patreon has zero tolerance for the sexualization of children or teenagers. We strive to keep our community safe on all fronts. We unequivocally forbid creators from funding content dedicated to non-consensual or illegal sexual themes and regularly review creators’ accounts to ensure creators behind adult campaigns are over the age of 18. We work with law enforcement globally and partner with world-class organizations including THORN and Safer technology, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and INHOPE because we are committed to keeping the Internet safer.
Second: The important responsibility of monitoring for illegal content in accordance with Patreon’s Community Guidelines lies with our Trust & Safety team, who takes that job very seriously. The security organization, in contrast, focuses on ensuring the safety of things like user and payment data on the platform. Recent changes we made to our security organization were designed to bolster security efforts through relevant in-house and partner expertise. Those vital efforts are completely unrelated to the Trust & Safety Team’s charter to keep the platform safe from harmful and illegal content.
The safety of the Internet and our platform are important to creators and their patrons and for that reason, anyone can report content they feel may violate our guidelines here.
As a global platform that supports hundreds of thousands of creators, we will always prioritize the safety and security of our community.
edited 9.15, 1:23 PM ET to clarify that Safer is a technology built by Thorn.