Daniels, Saulino Find Porn, Politics, Social Media Don’t Mix

Porn and politics make an often hazardous mix, but throw in social media and the situation gets even more complicated—as two porn performers on two continents found out this week, with both running into opposition from leading social platforms allegedly due to their political involvement. In the case of Stormy Daniels, the AVN Hall of Famer—who actually staged a perfunctory run for the United States Senate in Louisiana nine years ago—apparently never intended for her activities to become political. It was back in 2006 that she began her year-long alleged sexual relationship with Donald Trump who at the time was nothing but a reality TV star and New York businessman, not a prospective presidential candidate. Nonetheless, according to a report by the celebrity news site The Blast, Daniels has been refused the coveted blue checkmark indicating “verification” of her Twitter account by the social media giant, and she believes her link to Trump which has made national headlines repeatedly over the last six weeks is behind the rejection. Italian adult performer Paola Saulino, on the other hand, definitely injected herself into political controversy on purpose when she promised last year to perform fellatio on any man who voted “no” on a referendum to revise Italy’s constitution.  Now, she says, the social media platform Instagram, on which Saulino has more than 400,000 followers, has blocked her account, allegedly to prevent her from influencing the upcoming Italian election, which is expected to be very hard-fought and contentious. Italy will hold elections to pick a new parliament and prime minister on Sunday, March 4, after Matteo Renzi resigned as PM after the constitutional referendum on which he staked his political career went down to defeat by a substantial margin—thanks perhaps in part to Saulino’s pledge to male “no” voters. Her promise did not cover female “no” voters, apparently. But while 19 million people voted “no,” the 28-year-old Paulino was able to fulfill her promise to “only” about 700 men on what she labeled her “Pompa Tour” (which translates roughly as “Oral Tour”) of her home country. But with Sunday’s election looming, the adult entertainer says that she has been banned from her Instagram account to prevent her from using it to make a similar offer to voters. “They are scared that I could influence the result of the votes again. They are scared that I might launch another Pompa Tour for this election,” she said. “If I influence people, that’s my business! I don't want to pay the price for this.”  Paulino says that her original Pompa Tour will continue—after her face heals from an injury suffered from a facial dog bite.  Daniels, on the other hand, has made no such pledge, and while she is currently on a tour that's been labeled “Make America Horny Again,” the only services she performs for her fans are a live stripping routine, and signing a few autographs. Nonetheless, according to The Blast, Daniels' repeated attempts to receive the prestigious “verification” mark from Twitter have been rebuffed with a message informing her that she is “not eligible to be verified at this time.” While Daniels has maintained her public silence over the past six weeks about her alleged relationship with Trump, The Blast claims to know that, “Stormy believes Twitter is refusing to give her account a ‘verified’ checkmark because of her connection with President Trump.” Through her representatives, she was told that Twitter has “currently paused” its entire verification process, but Daniels suspects something more is going on behind the scenes, according to the report. A Twitter “verified” check mark lets other users know that the stated owner of an account is, indeed, the actual owner, cutting down on the possibility of imposters setting up fake accounts to swindle fans—which has reportedly already happened in Daniels case at least once (see the AVN.com report at this link.)