Titus Low, fame, porn and the law in Singapore

Hi guys. I've been asked to cover the Titus Low story as I covered the Alvin Tan controversy some years ago in depth and was even granted an exclusive with him when he fled to America. For those of you who are not in Singapore, allow me to summarize the story: Titus is a 22 year old Singaporean social media star with a huge following across various platforms including Onlyfans, where he posts adult content. He was arrested and charged in December last year with "transmitting obscene materials", making him the first Singaporean creator on the Onlyfans platform to be charged with that crime. Ironically, Titus isn't the only Singaporean creator on that platform but he is probably the most successful one on there and that has led other Singaporeans on Onlyfans to become extremely worried. So for those of you not familiar with Onlyfans, it is a website where you can pay to view exclusive content from digital creators - it wasn't set up specifically for adult content and it is possible to pay for content like yoga lessons and healthy recipes there, but the biggest earners on the website all post adult content. Unlike other platforms like Youtube, there is no restriction on posting adult content there. Onlyfans has made it easy for anyone to become a porn star - you shoot your own content on your phone, upload it onto your Onlyfans account then users pay a subscription to access that exclusive content. The platform makes money by taking a 20% cut of the money you make on the platform and it is free for creators to set up an account there. With Onlyfans, you don't need a manager, an agent, a studio, none of that - they aren't the only platform in the industry offering this kind of service but they're one of the most successful; that's probably why Titus chose to use it. 

My initial reaction is that I feel sorry for Titus as he is facing jail time for doing what quite a few others in Singapore have done, he has been singled out and targeted because he actually made a lot of money from it. There are plenty of other Singaporeans trying to flog their adult content online but most keep a very low profile and even if you do see their faces in their posts, they're highly unlikely to use their real names or divulge any personal details like where they work or live. Titus is very different in this aspect as he is cashing in on his fame to attract fans to spend money to access his adult content on Onlyfans but in doing so, he has really put his head above the parapet, doing the exact opposite of keeping a low profile. Technically speaking, what Titus is doing on Onlyfans is against the law in Singapore but the fundamental question is this: who exactly is harmed by this 'crime'? The only people who have viewed the adult content that Titus has uploaded are paying customers on the Onlyfans platform who have not only consented to view the content but have also paid for it. This then becomes a debate about the very purpose of the law: hence in principle, the transmission of what is deemed as 'obscene material' by any electronic means is illegal. in Singapore. So if a wife sends a nude photo of herself to her husband on Whatsapp or Snapchat in Singapore, then technically speaking, she is breaking the law even if that is a completely private act between two consenting adults and no third party has seen that nude photo in question. But of course, such an act would usually not warrant an arrest or any kind of investigation as there is no public interest in wasting police resources when it is clearly a victimless crime. So why then is Titus being treated differently, could it be argued that his Onlyfans activities are all 'victimless' too? If a crime doesn't have any victims at all, then is it still a crime? 

According to a BBC report, there are approximately 100 Onlyfans creators based in Singapore and thus if Titus has been arrested, it has made them very nervous if they would be hunted down eventually and they are nervously watching and waiting to see what is about to happen to Titus. Despite the fact that Titus was arrested back in December, no other Onlyfans creator in Singapore have been arrested since and it does seem like Titus is the only one they went after which seems weird to say the least - after all, if what Titus is doing is so illegal that the government needs to throw him in jail, then why aren't the going after all of these other Singaporean Onlyfans creators then? There doesn't seem to be any logic or consistency in the way the law has been enforced here; is Titus being made an example of here? The Chinese idiom that comes to mind is 杀一警百 - literally "kill one, warn a hundred". Would punishing Titus harshly send a very clear message to all the others to stop what they are doing on Onlyfans? But if creating and posting porn on Onlyfans is so detrimental to public decency and morality, then why is prostitution legal in Singapore then? Surely if you're talking about criminalizing activities that would cause harm to society, then think about the young men and women working as prostitutes in Singapore who are exploited and how this fuels sex trafficking if the government is willing to turn a blind eye to prostitutes in Singapore? If the aim of the law is to reduce the amount of activities that cause harm to society, then going after a porn star like Titus whilst turning a blind eye to prostitution is very illogical, when Titus isn't hurting anyone.  

So here's my theory: the Singaporean government know that they cannot eradicate all forms of sleaze and immorality from Singapore but they want to appease their conservative supporters by trying to look as if they are doing something about the situation. Hence they go after high profile porn stars like Titus Low, knowing that his arrest would make the headlines given how popular he is and thus this is a rather easy objective to achieve. Back when I was covering the Alvin Tan story, I asked a very hardcore PAP supporter why there was so much public anger directed at Alvin Tan whilst these same conservative Singaporeans simply turn a blind eye to all the prostitution going on everyday in Singapore. The reply I got was as follows, "some men simply need to have sex and are willing to pay for it. If these prostitutes are not there to fulfill that need, then many innocent women will get raped. I don't want to worry if my daughter or my friends' daughters are going to get raped when they come home after work or school. So if these men and prostitutes wanna do what they do together, then it actually helps make sure that many Singaporean women can get on with their lives in peace. But as for internet porn, anyone can stumble upon it online but I am not going to somehow 'accidentally stumble' into a brothel in Geylang and witness what is going on there. I don't want our kids to think, 'oh it doesn't matter if I don't study hard and get into university, I can always become rich by becoming a porn star!'  So that's why we need to clamp down hard on anyone in Singapore peddling porn online and as for the prostitutes, I support the government's stance in tolerating that industry in Singapore. It is a necessary evil for the greater good. Personally, I feel sorry for those prostitutes in Geylang." 

Whilst I clearly don't believe that there's any public interest in punishing Titus Low for his activities on Onlyfans, I am very surprised by his success. Firstly, his content is hardly unique and the production quality is poor. I've not actually paid to access his Onlyfans content but a lot of it has been leaked online onto other websites - Titus is instantly recognizable because of the tattoos on his arms. Thus it really isn't the quality of his adult content that is driving all that traffic to his Onlyfans account, rather it is because he has managed to build a big enough following on other social media platforms like Tiktok, Instagram and Twitter - it is his fans who are hungry to see more of him who are paying for his content on Onlyfans. This can be compared to the way a very famous actress appears nude for a few seconds in a film, the actually scene may not even be pornographic in any way but because this actress is famous, a lot of her fans would want to pay to watch that movie just for that scene regardless whether that movie is actually any good. As for why Titus has attracted such a following on other social media platforms, I am left me quite baffled. Okay he's got some decent youthful looks and his heavily tattooed arms do make him stand out in a rather crowded market of K-pop boy band clones of pretty East Asian boys. We normally expect celebrities to be famous for something, hence if you had won an Olympic gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, then you'll be remembered for that. If you had sung a song that went viral, then people would remember you for that song. Or if you had played the lead role in a famous movie, then people would remember you from that movie. But what the heck has Titus Low done to earn that fame, apart from his mediocre content on Onlyfans? 

Titus' arrest has done more than anything to raise his profile - after all, Singapore is a crazy rich country, there are plenty of Singaporean social influencers out there who are posting content of themselves spending an obscene amount of money. His Instagram feed just seems to be a constant stream of photos of Titus enjoying life in Singapore, posing with his pets, drinking cocktails in trendy bars, driving around town in his sports car, posing by the pool showing off his tattoos - even I am jealous, he seems to be having a lot of fun and not doing that much work apart from Onlyfans. I noted that his posts from before his arrest in December 2021 used to a few thousand likes, indeed if you scroll back far enough, some of his older posts from 2017 received less than a thousand likes. But after his arrest, his recent posts typically have between 20,000 to 40,000 likes despite the content not really being that interesting or entertaining. I can see how a dance trend can go viral on Tiktok if it is catchy and memorable but watching Titus style his hair to get ready to go out left me scratching my head as to why people actually found that interesting. You know that saying: there's no such thing as bad publicity, I would not have looked Titus up on social media if not for his arrest and we wouldn't be talking about it in the comments section below if he wasn't facing jail time for what he has done. If he could make up to S$30,000 a month just doing this, then again Titus is definitely doing something right and that is why I find this story very fascinating. 

After all, there are so many people trying to make money by selling adult content on platforms like Onlyfans, especially during the pandemic when we experienced lockdowns and couldn't even leave our houses for most of the day. Many turned to the internet as a source of entertainment and some turned to it as an alternative source of income. There are many streaming platforms for amateur adult performers out there and these are very accessible and user friendly. In fact, they operate in the same way as these popular Chinese streaming platforms except of course, adult content is permitted. On these platforms, only the most successful performers actually make any money; viewers can buy tokens on the platforms to tip their favourite performers but unless you command a huge fan base, most performers would be lucky to make a few dollars in tips per day and that's hardly worth it. A lot of the performers on these adult streaming sites are from poorer countries like Romania, Colombia and Ecuador so you're going to have a lot of competition on these platforms. When there are so many performers out there trying to get your attention, most viewers simply jump from one performer to another, much like the way we might channel surf when we don't quite know what we want to watch on television. You'd click on a performer and watch for a few seconds, then think, nah I'm bored, let's try another. The aim of the performers is to capture the attention of the viewers, persuade them to keep watching you and get them to give you a tip in exchange entertaining their requests. I can see how some exhibitionists can do this for fun but to try to make any substantial money by performing porn online is extremely difficult - that's why we shouldn't underestimate Titus' success.

Titus was arrested only after the content from his Onlyfans account has been leaked and some people have made a police report. This begs the question: why did someone want Titus to be arrested? The answer is pretty obvious: Titus is a 22 year old man who is making S$30,000 a month through porn whilst there are Singaporeans who don't make that in a year - there is definitely an element of jealousy here. Some people may react by saying, "if you can make that much money doing porn on Onlyfans, then I ought to get on that bandwagon as well!" But no, most people don't think like that - after all, do they have what it takes to become a porn star? Heck, I even get self-conscious before posting selfies on Instagram and even if you do set up an account on Only fans and start posting your own adult content, there's very little chance of you making as much money as Titus. Thus there are some people who are extremely jealous of someone like Titus making so much money, especially at a time when times are hard: the economy is still struggling after the pandemic, the war in Ukraine is causing a cost of living crisis and many people out there can barely make ends meet whilst Titus is flaunting his extravagant lifestyle on social media. So some of his haters may think, "even if I can't become as rich as Titus, I can always get him into trouble by reporting him to the police as making porn is illegal in Singapore, so he will lose his source of income and go to jail - then Titus would suffer like the rest of us." This probably explains why Titus was singled out, whilst other Singaporean Onlyfans creators have not been arrested (not yet anyway, not for now). 

There's always going to be a 'holier than thou' brigade wherever you go, this isn't unique to Singapore at all. We're talking about sexually repressed, usually quite ugly older Singaporeans who give themselves this sense of satisfaction when they equate their chastity with some kind of moral superiority compared to those who do go out and have casual sex. Allow me to present a situation which would be acceptable to the 'holier than thou' brigade: meet Xiaofang, a prostitute from China working in a brothel in the red light district of Singapore. She is in Singapore illegally and thus is afraid of the authorities - she has been trafficked into Singapore by her pimp and has to service many clients a day. Despite earning very little, she has to send most of what she earns back to China to support her very poor family, who are living in some remote corner of south-west China. So when the 'holier than thou' brigade is presented with the case of Xiaofang, they might even feel sorry for her given her really dire circumstances: after all, she is living in poverty, hating every moment of her sex work and if given a choice, she would rather have a better job and not have to work as a prostitute - this allows them to feel morally superior to Xiaofang. So now let's contrast Xiaofang and Titus, he is unapologetic about his success on Onlyfans and flaunts his newfound wealth on social media. This is why the 'holier than thou' media would resent Titus a lot more than Xiaofang. As Titus has earned so much money from his porn work, he has become a target of the 'holier than thou' brigade who think, "I am earning an honest living by working hard, yet that porn star Titus is so much richer than me? That's not fair! There's something very wrong, I will fix it by making a police report." 

The fact is Titus' success is indeed an anomaly - if his claims of making up to S$30,000 a month on Onlyfans are true and not wildly exaggerated, then that places him in the top 0.04% of Onlyfans creators who are truly making an insane amount of money. There was a news report on the BBC that describes the more typical experiences that Onlyfans creators have - the report interviews three creators who have been forced through sheer desperation to turn to porn in order to make ends meet. One of them  'Blake' described being so poor that he has stopped eating meat - we're not talking about Blake not taking fancy exotic holidays because flights have become so expensive, this guy can't even afford chicken and beef at the local supermarket. Whilst you might argue that this BBC report places the website in a negative light, that it makes the creators there look like victims and that this website is  exploiting them, by making money out of their desperation - after all, Onlyfans takes a flat fee of 20% of their earnings. On the other hand, these creators know exactly what they are signing up for and have willingly participated on that website to make money. Of course if the BBC tried to portray this website as a precious lifeline, a savior to these young people struggling to make ends meet, then it could risk being accused of encouraging other poor young people to start working in porn. But at the end of the day, what is the worst case scenario for the creators on Onlyfans? They spend a lot of time (and money) creating content that nobody wants to spend money to see, ouch. Oh dear. Now that's gonna hurt their egos, but it is not the end of the world. 

Titus has alleged to the media that the leaking of his porn videos may have been done by his rivals and I think there may be some truth to it. After all, this is no different from when I refuse to pay for a Netflix subscription and instead download my favourite movies and TV series off some dodgy website for free. Whilst the people who have hosted those files on their website haven't earned any money from me, they have certainly harmed Netflix's revenue stream because I have managed to get hold of what I want to watch without having to pay Netflix anything. However, I don't think that has hurt Titus all that much given how low-cost his productions are - it is literally him at home performing whilst recording it on his phone or tablet. Let's contrast this to the most famous Singaporean porn star ever, Annabel Chong. She gained global fame (or notoriety) by breaking the world record back in 1995 by having sex with 251 men in 10 hours and of course, this propelled her to world wide fame. Hence she went from a relative unknown in the porn industry to one of the biggest names on porn in the mid-1990s all because of this world record breaking feat. So let's put aside whatever feelings you may have about what Annabel Chong did - it was certainly a professional production that involved a massive cast and crew to put together at considerable expense, it was the polar opposite of what Titus did. Thus if someone leaked Annabel Chong's movie, it would hurt her revenue a lot more than Titus' but allow me to give you a different reason why this act has successfully hurt Titus in a way which you may not have previously considered. Allow me to use an analogy.

I visited Taiwan back in 2018 and when I visit a country, I always want to try all the local dishes. So one of Taiwan's most famous dishes is the Taiwan pineapple cake, which was on my list of dishes to try when in Taiwan. When I was at the famous Shilin night market in Taipei, I was ready to spend some money buying this famous dish when I chanced upon an old lady selling this pineapple cake, in order to lure tourists buy her products she was giving out free samples. It wasn't like she was giving out huge portions but it was on the assumption that the tourists who had never ever tried it before would enjoy her free sample so much they would buy a box or two from her. So I gladly accepted this free sample from the lady, thanked her and then bit into the pineapple cake, it was very underwhelming. I wondered what all the fuss was about, it lacked the intense flavour that one would expect from pineapple, instead it was a pastry filled with a sickly sweet pineapple jam. I almost spat it out on the spot, but I couldn't do that in front of the lady - that would be too rude. I had to run around the corner and spat it into the drain by the road. Yeah, that's how I feel about Titus' porn videos, I might have been curious enough to get a taste of Singaporean gay porn at a low price on Onlyfans but once I had a 'free sample' via the leaked videos, I felt the same way about the pineapple cakes: the product was of very poor quality and didn't appeal to me at all - it was certainly not worth the money and that free sample had convinced me not to spend any money on it. 

Turning our attention to another question: was Titus foolish in doing porn in Singapore? Actually, I am going to be quite harsh on him and say yes, he was, very much so. I refer you to another case to give you some perspective on this complex issue: back in 2016, Yuen Ye-Ming a British expatriate working in Singapore as a DJ was arrested on a range of drug offenses and he was very lucky to have been spared the death penalty given how strict Singapore's laws are regarding drugs. After he was sentenced, there was an outpouring of sympathy in the British media for Yuen especially since he was to be caned 24 times as part of his punishment. However, I don't agree with them and I don't feel sorry for Yuen, he wasn't some innocent backpacker who was tricked into becoming a drugs mule or someone who was so desperately poor he was willing to take a massive risk to earn some money. No, Yuen was a resident in Singapore and the onus was on him to obey the law there. Furthermore, the street value of drugs like cannabis in Singapore is so very high because drug traffickers risk the death penalty to smuggle it into Singapore illegally, compared to countries like Thailand and Netherlands where cannabis is legal and thus a lot cheaper. Yuen was an adult who knew the consequences of his actions and yet was willing to take the risk for financial gain - I have no sympathy for him. I do view Titus' situation in much the same light: he is a Singaporean citizen resident in Singapore, the onus is on him to figure out the legal issues associated with his activities on Onlyfans. If he was that determined to pursue a porn career, then he should have left Singapore to do it in a country where porn production is legal. This is business 101 - don't break the law.

One more question I've been asked is if Titus is straight, bisexual or gay. My first reaction was, who cares? But since I've been asked for my opinion, I did a bit of research: I simply did an image search of Titus Low + porn and found images of him indulging in gay sex with another man. By that token, that means he is either bisexual or gay, but not straight. In fact the only reason why I was willing to include this as part of my post was because of his so-called 'engagement party' to Malaysian social media influencer Cheryl Chin in a series of posts on social media. Surely Cheryl is completely aware that Titus is performing gay sex acts on Onlyfans to earn a lot of money? Is she going along with the hoax just to draw attention to herself and raise her profile on social media? After all, I've never ever heard of her until I started reading up on Titus whilst writing this post. If she wants attention, then well done Cheryl, you have managed to get exactly what you're looking for. Look if she is happy enough to marry a gay or bisexual man who does gay porn for a living, then that's a decision for Cheryl to make and who am I to judge her for that decision; though I can't help but imagine the number of times her friends and family members will ask her, "hey Cheryl, are you aware that Titus has been having sex with other men in the porn videos he has posted on Onlyfans? Are you cool with that? Will he keep performing gay sex online to make money even after you guys get married?" Thus I'm hardly the only person who is cynical about this relationship.

The last question I will deal with is whether or not Titus can move to London or Los Angeles to pursue his porn career. Let's deal with London first: the simple answer is no, you need a visa to move to the UK and typically, most Singaporeans will get a work permit that will enable them to work in the UK. There are also a whole bunch of visas under the Global Business Mobility programme as well as the new HPI (high potential individual) visa but Titus doesn't qualify for any of those. It is not impossible of course, but it would take some work to make it happen - say if Titus gets  degree from NUS (currently, he only has a degree from a local polytechnic) which will then qualify him to come to the UK on the HPI visa and once he is here, he gets a job whilst doing some Onlyfans on the side. Just because porn is legal in the UK doesn't mean you'll be granted a visa to come and work here as a porn star - allow me to make a comparison to bubble tea. Bubble tea is legal here of course, in fact it has become very popular in the last few years in London. But just because it is legal and popular doesn't mean that the UK government is going to grant you a visa to come and work in a bubble tea shop here. Likewise for America, whilst there are a bunch of work permits/visas available, none of them cover the porn industry and let's just say that Titus has grossly underestimated how easy it is for him to move to London or Los Angeles to pursue his porn career. Alvin Tan works in porn in America now but that's because he has been granted political asylum and has the right to work in America now. Please note I'm not recommending that Titus even considers this route.

Would Titus be able to dodge the law by performing for Onlyfans abroad? Imagine if he gets on a plane to London, he would instantly get a tourist visa (valid for 6 months) upon arrival. He can then do all the Onlyfans work he wants whilst in the UK whilst outsourcing the management of his Onlyfans account to a company or manager in the UK. When his visa runs out and he has to return to Singapore, even if the authorities try to arrest him, they are on shaky ground as the alleged 'crime' was committed in London and not Singapore, so if the British police are not interested in arresting Titus for his Onlyfans activities (since porn production is legal in the UK), then the Singaporean authorities will struggle to establish legal grounds to arrest Titus for something he has done in London. It is possible to be arrested in another country for a crime you have committed in the UK, say if Titus murdered a person whilst in the UK and fled back to Singapore to evade justice. Even if he was arrested in Singapore, he wouldn't stand trial in Singapore for the murder as the murder was committed in the UK, instead he would be extradited back to the UK to face justice in the jurisdiction where the crime had been committed. Even if Titus can somehow find a way to stay on the right side of the law by performing only in countries like the UK where producing porn is legal, would the authorities in Singapore will let him off the hook based on this legal loophole, or if they could jail him for the maximum of 21 months, the worst case scenario based on the charges he is currently facing. The police may have also confiscated his passport upon his arrest last year. 

Okay, so that's it from me on this topic, what do you think? Have you seen any of Titus Low's content and what do you make of it? Why do you think he is being treated so harshly by the authorities in Singapore? Is he asking for it by pushing the limits in Singapore or do you think he has been unfairly singled out, simply because he has managed to make quite a lot of money from porn? Do you think Titus would go to jail and if so, for how long, or would he get away with a fine? What do you think of this recent marriage to Cheryl Chin? Please leave a comment below, many thanks for reading.