Startup founder Tara Langdale-Schmidt says her company’s devices, known as VuVa, are designed to soothe the pelvic and vaginal pain and discomfort that she and millions of other women have experienced. But over the past decade, Langdale-Schmidt alleges Amazon has repeatedly shut down VuVatech’s product listings—sometimes she says for violating what she views as prudish “adult” content rules. Last year, Amazon blocked VuVatech from adding a discount coupon to one product because its automated systems identified the item as “potentially embarrassing or offensive,” according to a screenshot seen by WIRED.
“We just have to stop this insanity with being embarrassed about things,” Langdale-Schmidt says. “There’s no difference from your vagina than your ear, your nose, your mouth. It is another place on your body, and I don’t know how we got to this point where it’s not okay to talk about it. I just don’t get it.”
Amazon spokesperson Juliana Karber tells WIRED that no VuVatech products have been blocked for adult policy violations over the past year, though Langdale-Schmidt says that’s because she’s given up trying to list new items. Karber adds that Amazon understands the importance of sexual health and wellness products to its customers and has thousands of merchants offering them. The small fraction of those products categorized as “adult” are subject to additional policies “to best ensure we serve them to intending customers and not surprise customers who are not looking for them,” Karber says.
Companies and organizations working in sexual health and wellness have for years railed against what they view as excessive restrictions on their content by shopping, advertising, and social platforms. A new survey and an accompanying report shared exclusively with WIRED by the Center for Intimacy Justice, an industry advocacy group, underscore just how widespread these concerns are.
In the survey, which was completed in March 2024, VuVatech and more than 150 other businesses, nonprofit groups, and content creators spanning six continents reported challenging experiences sharing content about their work, promoting products, and using other services from Amazon, Meta, Google, and TikTok. Those surveyed included organizations offering tools and support for pregnancy, menopause, and other health topics.
Jackie Rotman, founder and CEO of the Center for Intimacy Justice, says ending what she describes as biased censorship against women’s health would unlock valuable commercial opportunities for tech platforms, and is also simply the right thing to do. “Bots, algorithms, and employees who are not knowledgeable in this topic should not be prohibiting women’s access to important and valuable health products,” she says.
Google, Meta, TikTok, and Amazon say they stand by their policies, some of which are aimed at protecting minors from encountering potentially sensitive content. The companies also all note that they offer ways for users and advertisers to appeal enforcement actions.
Some of the offerings cited in the Center for Intimacy Justice’s survey include unregulated products that have limited or mixed evidence supporting their effectiveness. Complaints about content moderation on tech platforms also extend well beyond sexual health issues. But Rotman, the industry group leader, says its survey findings show how widely sexual health tools and information are suppressed across the internet.
Sixty-four percent of the 28 survey respondents who sold goods on Amazon reported the ecommerce giant had removed their offerings at some point, and about a third of the merchants claimed Amazon had suspended their selling accounts altogether. Karber, the Amazon spokesperson, says that the survey reflects experiences of “a very small number of selling partners.”
Langdale-Schdmit alleges some versions of the VuVa remain blocked on Amazon today and none are eligible to be featured in paid advertisements. (Amazon bars ads for “adult products” including toys and products promoted for “sexual purposes.”) Despite earning about $6.5 million in lifetime sales, Langdale-Schmidt says VuVatech is losing money, a problem she attributes in part to the volatility of selling on Amazon, which is responsible for half of the company’s revenue.
Around 2022, Langdale-Schmidt noticed something else frustrating about Amazon: When she typed “vaginal” into Amazon’s search bar, it barely triggered any suggested search queries, while “erectile” resulted in a plethora of suggestions, like pills and supplements. “They took away all the sexual wellness prompts for the word ‘vaginal,’” Langdale-Schmidt alleges. For broad search queries, Amazon excludes from the results any product flagged as “adult,” including the VuVa, according to Langdale-Schmidt. This, for instance, prevents someone searching for “toy” from encountering a listing for a dildo.
The company’s adult products policy mentions a variety of sex toys and objects such as dildos and wand massagers, but doesn’t specifically list dilators or similar pelvic health devices, such as the VuVa. Amazon’s Karber says that customers looking for adult products are able to search directly for them using specific search terms or browsing product catalogs.
A former engineering leader at Amazon theorizes the search bar suggestions for “vaginal,” may be aggressively filtered because algorithms trained on internet content tend to associate women’s genitalia with porn-related terms. (Oddly, many of the search suggestions for “penis” include misspellings such as “penisen largement tool.”)
“That doesn’t mean Amazon shouldn’t be pressured to implement smarter search [technology] that can tell the difference between health products and porn,” says the ex-employee, who was granted anonymity to maintain their professional relationships.
“Vaginal Dryness”
In another case from 2023 cited in the Center for Intimacy Justice report, Google limited who was shown some ads from Aquafit Intimate, a small Israeli startup that develops pelvic and vaginal care products. In an email to Aquafit seen by WIRED, a Google representative explained the decision by citing references on Aquafit’s website to “bodily fluids such as vaginal dryness,” the display of body parts “unnecessarily,” and content about “itching” and “burning” that was likely to trigger a negative reaction among viewers.
Rebecca Sternberg, Aquafit’s cofounder and CEO, says she and her team tried appealing Google’s decision twice to no avail. “I said, well, you know vaginal dryness is not a secretion. Quite the opposite,” she says. Aquafit ultimately gave up on that form of Google advertising.
Google spokesperson Nate Funkhouser says the “moderately restricted” designation it applied to Aquafit’s ads under the ad giant’s sexual content policy was appropriate.
Aquafit continues to buy keyword-based Google search ads without issue, including for the term “vaginal dryness.” Sternberg says the paid promotions are crucial because every dollar spent on them has generally returned $3 or $4 in sales for the Aquafit. But Sternberg remains cautious. “If Google says you cannot say, you cannot buy the words ‘vaginal,’ ‘itching,’ ‘burning,’ ‘discharge,’ we’re up shit creek,” she says. “If we didn’t have Google ads, we’d be dead.”
Overall, about two-thirds of the 74 businesses and individuals the Center for Intimacy Justice surveyed that advertise on Google reported the tech giant blocked some of their ads, largely citing rules around sexual or inappropriate content. Funkhouser says that Google has long allowed ads for a variety of sexual health products and services, and that last year, it loosened its rules to allow for promoting additional products, including pubic grooming tools.
The report alleged that Google’s biggest online advertising competitor, Meta, unfairly rejected ads for an urinary tract infection treatment and a guide to recognizing sexual coercion, which showed a hand touching a body. Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts says the UTI ad had violated policies limiting prescription drug ads; the other ad had been incorrectly blocked under a ban on nudity. Roberts says Meta generally allows ads that promote sexual health, wellness, and reproductive products and services.
Among the 97 organizations and individuals surveyed who use TikTok, about half reporting facing instances of their posts or ads being removed, often without explanation. Some organizations responded that they haven’t bothered with advertising on TikTok because they feared the company would block their ads. TikTok declined to comment. The video app’s policies prohibit nudity, restrict content with semi-nudity, and don’t allow advertising for what it calls sexual “enhancement” products.
Some organizations reported that they have tried to avert potential restrictions on TikTok and other platforms by writing in what is called “algospeak,” intentionally including misspellings of words or representing them with emojis so that they aren’t detected by automated filtering systems. For example, sex can become “seggs,” lube turn into “loob,” or the word “butt” could be represented by the peach emoji. Avoiding proper language can lead to confusion and exacerbate stigmas, some businesses said. But they also felt like they had no choice but to self-censor to get their message out.
