The founder of Startup, Tara Langdale-Schmidt, says that the devices of her business, known as Vuva, are designed to appease pain and pelvic and vaginal discomfort that she and millions of other women have lived. But in the past decade, Langdale -Schmidt allegedly alleged that Amazon has repeatedly closed the lists of Vuvatech products – sometimes she says to have violated what she considers as prudish “adult” content. Last year, Amazon prevented Vuvatech from adding a reduction coupon to a product because its automated systems identified the article as “potentially embarrassing or offensive”, according to a screenshot seen by Wired.
“We just have to stop this madness to be embarrassed by things,” says Langdale-Schmidt. “There is no difference with your vagina than your ear, nose, your mouth. It is another place on your body, and I don’t know how we came to this point where it is not normal to talk about it. I just don’t understand.
Amazon spokesperson Juliana Karber told Wired that no Vuvatech product was blocked for adult policies in the past year, although Langdale-Schmidt says that it was because she abandoned to try new articles. Karber adds that Amazon understands the importance of sexual health and well-being products to its customers and that thousands of merchants offer them. The small fraction of these products classified as “adults” is subject to additional policies “to make sure that we serve them to intentional customers and do not surprise customers who do not look for them,” explains Karber.
Companies and organizations working in sexual health and well-being have for years what they consider to be excessive restrictions on their content by purchases, advertising and social platforms. A new survey and a support report Shared exclusively with Wired by the Center for Intimacy Justice, an industry defense group, stresses how widespread these concerns.
In the survey, which was carried out in March 2024, Vuvatech and more than 150 other companies, non -profit groups and content creators covering six continents reported difficult experiences sharing content on their work, the promotion of products and the use of other services from Amazon, Meta, Google and Tiktok. Interviewed people included organizations offering tools and support for pregnancy, menopause and other health subjects.
Jackie Rotman, founder and CEO of the Center for Intimacy Justice, said that the end of what she describes as a biased censorship against the health of women would unlock precious commercial opportunities for technological platforms, and is also simply the right thing to do. “Robots, algorithms and employees who are not well informed in this subject should not prohibit women’s access to important and precious health products,” she says.
Google, Meta, Tiktok and Amazon say they maintain their policies, some of which aim to protect minors from the meeting of potentially sensitive content. Companies also note that they offer users and advertisers to use application measures.
Some of the offers cited in the survey of the Center for Intimacy Justice include unregulated products that have limited or mixed evidence supporting their effectiveness. Complaints concerning the moderation of content on technological platforms also extend far beyond sexual health problems. But Rotman, the group leader of the industry, says that his survey results show how much sexual health tools and information are deleted on the Internet.
