Patreon Bans Reduxx Magazine

A reduxxtionist argument for why you should not trust Patreon with money or data privacy.

The feminist news aggregator Reduxx, which many of us know as a reliable archive of news and opinion pieces relating to gender ideology’s impact on women and girls, especially in athletics and incarceration, has recently been banned from the crowdfunding site Patreon after they were reported for alleged terms of service violations.

Reduxx has stated that Patreon was their primary source of subscriber income. Their staff and contributors have worked tirelessly to document receipts in an accessible format. We've all relied on them.

Reduxx is a small, relatively new media source that is run by young women writing from a radical feminist perspective. Reduxx has contributed greatly to informing and therefore elevating the discourse, and without support, they may have to limit their hours or otherwise not report on as many stories. If you want to support them, please use this link to check out alternative ways of helping to crowdfund the project.

Patreon has banned terfs/gender criticals before. Project Exulansic, my account, was banned in February of 2022. K. Yang the Deprogrammer was also banned a few months after I was, and has stated that Patreon refunded to her donors, 4 years’ worth of donations that had been in her Patreon account (reminder to withdraw monthly). I am sure there have been other deplatformings.

3 months after my ban, on May 3rd of 2022, Patreon initiated a phantom payout to my Stripe account using bogus monthly and annual total income numbers.

This Stripe account was never connected to my Patreon as it was created after my Patreon ban, because of my Patreon ban. These numbers did not match my actual payouts, and no May 2022 payout ever materialized. Stripe confirmed the document I received was initiated by Patreon.

Hey Patreon… what’cha doing with my data? Hmm?

Why was Reduxx banned? What can we all collectively, as a movement, learn from this ban? We ought to analyze these situations similar to the way the aviation industry improves safety by studying plane crashes. Part of that means being thoughtful about the possible responsibility held by the pilots - in this case, the editors at Reduxx - and not just environmental factors we have less control over, such as a mass-report campaign, analogous to the weather, or a flaw in the plane/platform itself (such as the platform being anti-terf).

I encourage all of you to never feel particularly comfortable on someone else’s platform. What you say, even in a private, members-only area, is NOT private. People can and do face platform-based negative consequences, such as a ban, as well as legal consequences, for what they do or say online. Not everyone who gives you $1 has your best interests in mind.

The specific reason Patreon banned Reduxx may be uncertain. These platforms tend to not give a specific justification beyond “hate speech” or other broad terms of service (ToS) violations. Reduxx’s editors, perhaps speculatively, stated that trans activists organized a mass reporting campaign of their page, resulting in an automated ban once a threshhold was reached. Assuming this scenario is accurate, there is little to learn. Mass reporting campaigns do work on certain platforms.

The pro-trans news aggregator Pink News had a different theory.

Pink News alleges a possible target of a mass reporting campaign: an item of swag Reduxx was distributing at a particular membership tier. Here is what Reduxx had to say about the item:

The item in question is a metal device that is designed to fit over the knuckles of the hand, increasing the level of injury that a punch can cause. Such an item is known colloquially as “brass knuckles” or “knuckle dusters.” Such an item does technically fall under legal rules and restrictions governing prohibited weapons in many American states (9/10 states have banned it).

Based on their blurb, Reduxx was aware of the intended purpose of this item. Reduxx used a photo of the item positioned on a hand as brass knuckles to advertise the membership tier. The writer suggested that it somehow helps with protection in a dark parkade (parking garage for my fellow Americans).

Here is the problem with giving this item away as swag. In many jurisdictions, this item is illegal to possess, purchase, sell, import, give away, or receive. It is criminal contraband. Anyone caught in possession of an item designed to fit over the knuckles to worsen injuries can be fined and/or imprisoned. The fine may be significant. The possible jail term may be a year or more. That's just in the US. Other countries may have harsher penalties. On top of that, they said they list it as a keychain so countries will “like” it.

I am not an attorney. To a lay person like me, this appears to match the legal description of the crime of Customs fraud by miscategorization, a federal offense in the US carrying a possible prison term of up to 20 years. Given the seriousness of what Pink News has alleged of Reduxx, I was surprised to see one of the Reduxx founder-editors, Genevieve Gluck, admitting to having shipped out some of these items in this manner. Her reasoning was questionable.

She argued that if you are able to get something through Customs, the item is legal - even if Customs previously rejected that item, and you had to misrepresent the item to get it through Customs. This is equivalent to arguing “if you can get out of the restaurant without paying, your meal was free.” To quote Elevatorgate, “Guys: don’t do that.”

Patreon now has a list of names and addresses of women who purchased this membership tier and who may have therefore received this contraband in the mail, knowing it had been miscategorized to evade Customs due to being an illegal weapon. This unfortunately implicates the editors and recipients in criminal activity, which is against Patreon’s ToS.

This list would be evidence of possession of contraband in the women’s homes or on their persons, and may provide law enforcement probable cause to obtain a search warrant in order to locate and confiscate this contraband. Though some have alleged there's no way a terf would be at risk of malicious prosecution for such a trivial offense, I am reminded of stories of women incarcerated over tweets.

Patreon may be legally obligated or simply politically motivated to turn this list over to the relevant local authorities. If you are in a jurisdiction with a ban on this particular category of weapons, and you received this weapon, my advice is to contact a qualified attorney and discuss the best plan to limit your legal exposure.

My intent in posting this is to not drag them or undermine their project. We all have lapses in judgment, especially on social media, where the line between public and private communications may become blurred. My hope is that other people can learn from this episode and avoid making the same mistakes, perhaps avoiding the same or worse consequences.

I want to respond to some push-back I received when I derided this choice of swag on X. I described these weapons as novelty toys, and was told to “make up my mind” as to whether they were toys or weapons. I want to be clear: this item is legally classified by various governments as a weapon. This item was also marketed by Reduxx as a weapon. It's further clearly intended to be used as brass knuckles. And it's a novelty toy to pretend you'll be safer because now you're a kitty with claws. A close range weapon reliant on upper body strength is non ideal for a woman versus a man.

To summarize, Reduxx may have lost their Patreon because they described using the platform to facilitate what on its face appears to be criminal activity. The most flattering spin is that they were completely oblivious to the concept of Customs fraud. It does not reflect well on their overall understanding of the system they are seeking to change, either. But good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. Right now, they will need support to keep doing the work they've been doing which we all rely on. Once again, here is their support link.

https://reduxx.info/support/