Erotic Review Director Lucy Roeber on Digital Censorship and Print's Freedom
In May 2025, Instagram (Meta) imposed a ban on ermagazine.com due to "pornographic or graphic sexual content," with no option for appeal. Lucy Roeber, who heads Erotic Review Publishing Ltd, views this as part of a broader trend against the journal she revived in 2024. Previously, in August 2023, Shopify halted payments, and PayPal subsequently blacklisted the company indefinitely. Additionally, Google categorized the site under SafeSearch, and several servers restrict access. During the Barbican's Dirty Weekend in November 2025, numerous attendees encountered difficulties subscribing to the newsletter. Roeber references insights from Dr Carolina Are and Cindy Gallup regarding digital gatekeeping, a challenge also faced by Dr Soum Rakshit's MV. The autumn/winter issue is set to launch on 19 October, followed by a Berlin event on 24 October.
Key facts
- Instagram (Meta) blocked ermagazine.com in May 2025 for allegedly promoting pornographic or graphic sexual content
- Shopify froze Erotic Review payments in August 2023 during a Stripe investigation; PayPal later permanently blacklisted the company
- Google placed ermagazine.com in SafeSearch and has not responded to appeals
- About a third of newsletter sign-ups at the Barbican's Dirty Weekend in late November 2025 were blocked on smartphones
- Dr Carolina Are links intensified censorship to the 2018 FOSTA/SESTA exception to Section 230 of the US Telecommunications Act
- Cindy Gallup founded Make Love Not Porn and describes platform monopolies as obstructing independent creativity
- Erotic Review's The Body: Digital/Real/Imagined at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in January 2026 sold out
- The autumn/winter issue of Erotic Review arrives in shops and galleries on 19 October, with a Berlin launch on 24 October at PornFilmFestival Berlin
Entities
Artists
- Lucy Roeber
- Mindy Seu
- Cindy Gallup
- Carolina Are
- Helena Whittingham
- Rebecca Rukeyser
- Soum Rakshit
- Mary Jane Fox
- Noelle Purdue
- Vex Ashley
- D. H. Lawrence
Institutions
- Erotic Review
- Erotic Review Publishing Ltd
- Meta
- Shopify
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Bankful
- NatWest
- Spotify
- Barbican
- Aylo
- MindGeek
- Pornhub
- YouPorn
- Make Love Not Porn
- Northumbria University
- Centre for Digital Citizens
- Lover Management
- King's College London
- MV
- Jack Fertility
- Institute of Contemporary Arts
- PornFilmFestival Berlin
- Joyride
- X
- TikTok
- YouTube
- The New York Times
- The Guardian
- Financial Times
- Statista
- Bionic Services
- European Union
- It's Nice That
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- Berlin
- Germany
- Montreal
- Quebec
- Canada
- Luxembourg
- Cyprus
- British Virgin Islands
- New York
- United States