On Thursday, August 19, OnlyFans announced that it will prohibit sexually explicit content starting October 1st, to appeal to more financial investors.
“In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform, and continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines,” OnlyFans said in a statement on Thursday.
The company also said it is making the changes “to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payout providers,” supporting reports that the decision stems from a lack of outside investors.
The U.K. based platform is a content subscription service launched in 2016, where Content creators can earn money from users who subscribe to their content—the “fans”; However, majority of the content uploaded on the platform is sexually explicit content, and the news disappointed many, especially the sex workers who’ve come to rely on selling their “fans” that very explicit content.
“I think it’s a dumb move,” said Connor Rey, a two-year Content Creator based in Scotland “majority of their earnings are from sex workers and without sex workers they wouldn’t have taken off the way they have. [OnlyFans] did essentially become a safe place for sex workers to own their content and work on their own terms without shady studios or without escorting,”
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the site saw an immense increase in traction amongst young adults, reaching up to more than 130 million users, and generating over 2 billion dollars in sales. In July 2021 alone, OnlyFans approved 114,065 creator accounts out of 279,222 applications, according to the company’s monthly transparency report.
“Fetishes or kinks, like public content, anonymous content, glory holes, things like that, they are also not going to allow,” said Jackson Stone, an U.S. based Content Creator who’s been on the platform for over 2 years “That doesn’t jive with a lot of the stuff I do.”
On Friday, August 20, the platform also updated their “Acceptable Use Policy” site and in detailed listed all sexual content which will be banned including actual or simulated sexual intercourse, masturbation, and depiction of bodily fluids commonly secreted during sexual conduct.
The announcement follows the same trend as Patreon, another subscription crowdfunding platform, which increased efforts to review content and suspend accounts with “implied nudity” in 2018; as well as Tumblr, a microblogging site, which also banned pornography with the intent to attract more advertisers in the same year.
“So far seems like everyone’s like ‘let’s get out of this sh*t’ so I have less to worry about and not have to go through loopholes just to have my content up,” said Stone.
For the past couple of years, the company has received positive reviews from fellow sex workers for giving them a safer place to do their jobs and It is fair to mention that OnlyFans grew thanks to the success of sex workers. Unfortunately, the Narratives of sex work as undesirable and disposable are still heavily steeped in our cultural imagination.
According to British author Georgina Voss’ “Stigma and the Shaping of the Pornography Industry”, sex workers, legal, cultural, and social discourse is characterized by “prurience, titillation, outrage and disgust”, scaring off the heavily conservative venture capitalists in the country who worry that the company’s reputation would prevent certain financial partner opportunities.
“I think people need to learn that sex work is not a dirty job for bad people,” said Rey “people should be allowed to make money off their own body, everybody in this world watches porn and without sex workers that wouldn’t happen. The root of the problem is society being unable to accept body positivity and sexuality, we need to reprogram how we think as a collective and just allow sex workers to work.”
Other investors are also concerned about the possibility of minors creating subscription accounts, although the company says it has controls in place to prevent such events.
But as the platform continues to position itself as a forum for other type of creators like fitness instructors, chefs and musicians, Adult-content creators keep running out of spaces to make money on the internet.
“I plan on transitioning to Just-for-fans,” said Stone “the platform’s fine, they’re going to allow more kink stuff. They’re by sex workers for sex workers, so I’m going to continue to use them, I’m no longer going to continue post on OnlyFans. That’s my current plan.”
Some however, are weary of making the transition due to already high percentage fees by the site. OnlyFans takes 20% of all grossed income, Just For Fans takes 30% leaving their livelihoods and source of income up in the air.
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Dannys Marrero 