The multi-billion dollar streaming industry is fueled by horrific labor abuses

The fantasy of the influencer economy is about finding an audience for your content, getting swept by the winds of the algorithm, and living the glamorous life with all the money you make. And someone is certainly making money.

Take adult webcams, for example, a multi-billion dollar global industry where content creators build a devoted following while streaming to meet endless demand. But far from dreaming of mansions, diamonds and luxury cars, a new report finds that webcam models often earn pennies in deplorable conditions where they encounter bed bugs and cockroaches, filth and shared streaming equipment often covered in semen, blood, vomiting or stools.

Research released this week by Human Rights Watch sheds light on the conditions in one of the adult camera centers, Colombia. Working with two prostitute-run organizations in the country, HRW found that models stream for hours in dirty studios that provide minimal equipment and facilities. Studios usually keep workers under constant surveillance to make sure they don’t take breaks, even to drink water. And most charge extra for basics like soap, sanitizer and wipes.

“There was an epidemic of rashes on our hands and fingers because of the dirty keyboards and it just kept spreading,” a 33-year-old webcam model based in Bogota told HRW in October 2023. “But actually mental health issues are the worst.”

Many cameras come to the big cities of Colombia to use studios because they cannot afford a computer and other streaming equipment. They work to save enough money to eventually go out on their own. But between the cut of revenue that popular streaming platforms like BongaCams, Chaturbate, LiveJasmin and Stripchat get and the percentage taken by the studios, the models are left with very little. And perhaps worst of all, even if they want to switch to another studio or save enough to go out on their own, studio bosses almost always control the cameras’ streaming accounts and usually refuse to release them — and the valuable follow-up cameras have won.

The situation is particularly complicated, says HRW researcher Erin Kilbride, because the immediate, horrific labor abuses caused by studio owners can obscure the larger context — the report claims streaming services lack corporate accountability for the human toll in making content on their platforms.