It distinguishes itself from competitors by emphasizing itself as a social network rather than a dating site. While working on release 2. In January , FetLife deleted hundreds of groups — including anything with the words blood , needles , rape and incest — and temporarily shut down the ability to create new groups following pressure from their payment processor.
Profiles can also list relationships with other members. Members can create and join groups which function as internet forums , send direct messages to one or more other members and advertise and organize events.
Members can also post blog entries, photographs and videos, either publicly or only to members in the poster's friends list, along with comments on other members' posts. The search feature is deliberately limited to prevent members from finding users with specific characteristics, such as age and gender , and blog posts can only be searched via tags specified by the poster.
In , FetLife found itself at the center of a controversy regarding its policy that users pledge not to "make criminal accusations against another member in a public forum". In April , FetLife was accessed by Brendt Christensen, the killer of Yingying Zhang , to explore discussion forums on topics relating to abduction and kidnapping. While the site's terms of service prohibit promoting racism or hate, FetLife has faced criticism for not adequately addressing the increasing prevalence of racist content.
During the George Floyd protests , members reported an increase in racist hate speech and extremist content, including " white power " symbols, posts glorifying Nazi imagery, and discussions promoting white supremacy and antisemitism. Additionally, the inclusion of " race play " on the "official" fetish list has divided members, with some defending the practice as a consensual exploration of historical trauma and others criticizing it as a form of racism and fetishization.
