Work Experience:
- Civic Media Fellow at Annenberg Innovation Lab at University of Southern California. 2021-2022.
- Visiting Researcher at Max Planck Institute for Software Systems. 2021.
- Advisor, Decoding Stigma. 2020 – present.
- Co-Founder, Hacking//Hustling. 2018 – present.
- Community Organizer, Survivors Against SESTA. 2018 – 2019.
- Director of Communications, AltSex Conference. 2015 – 2018.
- Researcher and Care Coordinator, Persist Health Project, 2013 – 2016.
Honors, Awards, Education:
- Public Knowledge 20/20 Visionaries Award – Future Tech Policy Leader. 2021.
- Recipient of the Barlow Award from EFF’s Pioneer Ceremony. Fall 2020.
- Grant Recipient: $125k from the Open Society Foundation for Hacking//Hustling. Summer 2019.
- MPH in Public Health
- BA in Psychology
- BFA in Photography
Events Organized:
- The Coding of Risk: Financial Discrimination From Sex Work to Sanctions. Rights Con. Summer 2021
- Trains, Texts and Tits: Sex work, Technology and Movement. Hacking//Hustling 4-part curriculum. Spring 2021.
- Informal, Criminalized, Precarious: Sex Workers Organizing Against Barriers: Sex, Tech, and the Internet. Cornell, BKC, H2, UNC 7-part conference. Spring 2021
- Sex Work Village at the Internet Freedom Festival. (Postponed due to COVID)
- Sex, Tech and the Internet: Gentrification, Barriers and Design Justice. Harvard Law, Cornell Law, and Hacking//Hustling.
- Fighting Surveillance Tech with Trademark Transparency. with Amanda Levendowski and Kendra Albert, Hacking//Hustling and Decoding Stigma. Fall 2020.
- Legal Literacy Training: Surveillance and Sex Work. Hacking//Hustling. Summer 2020.
- Digital Literacy Training: 3-Part Series. Hacking//Hustling. Summer 2020.
- Memes, Social Media and Protest. Hacking//Hustling and Women of Sex Tech. Summer 2020.
- WTF is EARNIT?, Hacking//Hustling. Winter 2020.
- Big Tech is Watching: Surveillance on the Street and Online. KINKOUT: Spaces, MoMA PS1. Winter 2020.
- A Platform for Sex Workers in a Post-SESTA World. Organized in collaboration with Melissa Gira Grant, Eyebeam, t4tech, and Ingrid Burrington. Fall 2018.
- Whoretopia Future Lab: Beyond Decriminalization. Writing workshop series with Tina Horn. Summer 2018.
Publications and Written Work:
- Deplatforming: A Roundtable Conversation. Porn Studies. Tarleton Gillespie, Danielle Blunt, Sinnamon Love, Stefanie Dugay, Clarissa Smith. Fall 2021.
- Disabled Sex Workers’ Fight for Digital Rights and Platform Accessibility. Special Issue on Disability and Sex Work in Disability Studies Quarterly, volume 42.3 (slated for publication Summer 2022).
- Automating Whorephobia: Sex, Technology and the Violence of Deplatforming. Porn Studies. Danielle Blunt and Zahra Stardust. Fall 2021.
- FOSTA in a Legal Context. Co-author. Columbia Law Review. Spring 2021.
- Technologies for Liberation: Toward Abolitionist Futures, Astraea Lesbian Foundation. Winter 2020.
- Posting Into the Void: The Impact of Shadowbanning on Sex Workers and Activists. Lead researcher, Hacking//Hustling. Fall 2020.
- International Whores Day Zine, produced and published by Kink Out Productions, contributing writer. Winner of Broken Pencil Magazine’s best political zine and in MoMA PS1’s permanent collection. Summer 2020.
- Erased: The Impact of FOSTA-SESTA and the Removal of Backpage Research Summary. Technology, Anti-Trafficking, and Speculative Futures, Anti-Trafficking Review Special Issue Release. Spring 2020.
- Account Shutdown Harm Reduction Guide. Hacking//Hustling for Harvard Conference. Fall 2019.
- Online Worker Safety: Hazards and Cautions: A Practical Harm Reduction Guide on Why and How Sex Workers Can Protect Ourselves at Work. Hacking//Hustling for Eyebeam. Spring 2018.
- The Health Care Hustle. Tits and Sass: Service Journalism by and for Sex Workers. Spring 2015.
Talks and Panels:
- Invited Talk: Hacking//Hustling and Sex Worker Advocacy Online. Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Spring 2021
- Panelist: Deplatforming Sex, Northumbria University, UK, With Tarleton Gillepsie, Fall 2021
- Panelist: Perspectives on Encryption and Child Safety. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Fall 2021.
- Invited Talk: Doxxing. Digital Defense Fund. Summer 2021
- Invited Talk: Whorephobia in Platforms: FOSTA-SESTA and Online Censorship. Current Topics in Technology Platform Policy. Stanford Internet Observatory. Summer 2021.
- Workshop: Digital Dangers for Pregnant People, Ford Foundations, Panel, Spring 2021.
- Contributor: Data and Society Workshop Hustle Economy Conference -‘High Risk’ Hustling: Payment Processors, Sexual Proxies and Discrimination by Design, Spring 2021.
- Guest Lecturer: in our new seminar series, “Current Topics in Technology Platform Policy. Stanford Observatory Prep. Spring 2021
- Invited Talk: Hacking//Hustling and Sex Worker Advocacy Online. Harvard Kennedy School with Kendra Albert, Spring 2021.
- Panelist: Body of Workers a collaboration between Veil Machine and Kink Out at the From the Rupture: Ideas & Actions for the Future festival by Eyebeam. Winter 2020.
- Invited Talk: The Power of Platforms: Platform Literacy and Content Moderation, Winter 2020.
- Invited Talk: State of the Industry, InterNEXT Adult Industry Panel. Winter 2020.
- Invited Talk: Reclaiming Our Bodies, Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings Virtual Retreat, Winter 2020.
- Invited Talk: Sex Work Online: Censorship and Exploitation at Digital Sex Workers’ Festival for International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE). Winter 2020.
- Guest Lecturer: Feminist Political Theory: Payment Processors and Online Sex Work at Bard University. Fall 2020.
- Invited Talk: IFF Community Knowledge Share: Coffee Talk with Danielle Blunt. Internet Freedom Festival. Summer 2020
- Panelist: Movement Lawyering: Challenging Narratives Around Online Laws Pertaining to Sex Work. The Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs, The Cyberlaw clinic and Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. Summer 2020.
- Panelist: Communications Decency Act Section 230 and the Future of Online Speech, Case Western Reserve University. Summer 2020.
- Invited Talk: Drug User Organizing call on EARN IT, Urban Survivors Union.
- Panelist: Summer 2020: Memes, Social Media and Protest, Hacking//Hustling and Women of Sex Tech, Organizer and Speaker. Summer 2020.
- Invited Talk: Spring 2020: CDA 230 and The EARN IT Act, Women of Sex Tech Conference.
- Invited Talk: Spring 2020: FOSTA-SESTA and EARN IT: What Mental Health Professionals Need to Know, The AltSex Conference.
- Invited Talk: Sex Work in Covid-19, Harm Reduction Coalition. Spring 2020.
- Invited Talk: Networked Bodies of Resistance. NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Tech 4 Social Good Day. Moderated by Gabriella Garcia. Winter 2019.
- Guest Lecturer: Introductory Sociology on Social Deviance and Sex Work, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Winter 2019.
- Invited Talk: Initial Findings on the Impact of FOSTA-SESTA and the Removal of Backpage. Sex Workers, Surveillance & Tech Convening, Harvard Law School. Fall 2019.
- Invited Talk: From Spreading Hate on 8chan to the Safety of Sex Workers. Speaker at Lesbians Who Tech. Fall 2019.
- Invited Talk: Hidden in Plain Sight: Propaganda, Surveillance, and the 21st Century Vilification of Sex Worker. Lecture at Bard College with Melissa Gira Grant. Spring 2019.
- Guest Lecturer: Sex Work and Sexual Health at NYU. Dulcinea Pitagora. Spring 2019.
- Presenter: Health Equity in the Age of Shadowbanning and SESTA: How Obfuscated Infrastructure and Systems of Content Moderation Harm Whores and Everyone. Internet Connection Panel at Theorizing the Web. Moderated by Brandon Arroyo. Spring 2019.
- Presenter: Dystopia Now: Erasing the Internet by Erasing Sex Workers. Presentation with Melissa Gira Grant at Data & Society’s Future Perfect conference organized by Ingrid Burrington. Summer 2018.
- Invited Talk: Negotiating Boundaries: Psychology Meets Sex Work. AltSex Conference. Spring 2018.
- Invited Talk: Building Safer Spaces: Perspectives from Sex Workers. KINKOUT Sex Work Panel. Euridice Gallery. Winter 2018:
Media Coverage:
- Would You Date a Robot? Flash Forward Podcast. Rose Eveleth. 2021
- OnlyFans Isn’t Just Porn 😉. New York Times. Charlotte Shane. 2021.
- Sex Work: How to Survive the Shadowban. Polina Bachlakova. Bedside Productions. 2021.
- Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism, Jillian C. York, 2021
- Rashida Jones’s Battle With Sex Workers Reveals a New Era of Internet Censorship, Jo Livingston, The New Republic, January 19, 2021.
- “We’ve Always Taken Care Of Each Other”: How Sex Workers Are Coping During COVID-19, Griffin Wynne, Bustle, 2021.
- Posting Into The Void, Salty. 2021
- FOSTA-SESTA was supposed to thwart sex trafficking. Instead, it’s sparked a movement, Liz Tung, NPR, The Pulse, 2020
- Is social media silencing Black Lives Matter? Sex worker collective seeks answers, Ana Valens, DailyDot, June 22, 2020.
- What is ProtonMail, and should you use it?, Ana Valens, DailyDot, June 10, 2020
- Anonymous user uploads four terabytes of private videos from only fans. Michael Thomsen, DailyMail UK, February 2020.
- SESTA-FOSTA is ‘detrimental’ to sex workers’ safety, study confirms, January 24, 2020. Ana Valens. Daily Dot.
- Sex Workers Are at the Forefront of the Fight Against Mass Surveillance and Big Tech. Erin Taylor. The Observer. 2019.
- Tough Talks: Propaganda, Surveillance, and the 21st-Century Vilification of Sex Workers. Hannah Ardent Center. Charlotte Albert, 2019.
- Sex Workers of the World United, Scott Stern, American Scholar. June 3, 2019.
- Porn Stars Vs. Instagram: Inside The Battle To Remain On The Platform. Otilla Steadman, BuzzFeedNews. October 18, 2019.
- Tough Talks: Propaganda, Surveillance, and the 21st-Century Vilification of Sex Workers. Hannah Ardent Center. Charlotte Albert, 2019.
- Episode 32: Danielle Blunt On Health Care Access for Sex Workers, Peepshow Podcast, 2019.
- Sex Workers of the World United. Scott Stern, American Scholar. 2019.
- Sex Workers Fight Back Against a Dangerous Law by Stepping Into the Spotlight, Melanie Ehrenkranz. Gizmodo. June 4, 2018.
- Tumblr’s Porn Ban Further Stigmatizes And Alienates Sex Workers Online. Melanie Ehrenkranz, Gizmodo. 2018.
- Kinky Yoga: Interrobang. Why Are People Into That? Tina Horn. Fall 2018.
- Danielle Blunt On Health Care Access for Sex Workers. The Peepshow Podcast. Fall 2018.
- Hacking//Hustling: A Sex Worker Led Tech Conference. The Peepshow Podcast. Fall 2018.
- The Web-Hosting Service for Sex Workers, by Sex Workers, Against SESTA/FOSTA.Arvind Dilawar. The Nation, August 2018
Formal Education:
- CUNY School of Public Health, MS in Public Health, Summer 2018, GPA: 3.8
- SUNY New Paltz, BS in Psychology and BFA in Photography, GPA: 3.6
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