OnlyFans to Bar Sexually Explicit Content Starting October

Video sharing platform OnlyFans, best known for its creators’ adult videos and photos, has announced that it will ban sexually explicit content starting in October. According to Bloomberg, the company says it is making the changes because of pressure from its banking and payment provider partners. In a statement, OnlyFans says “Effective 1 October 2021, OnlyFans will prohibit the posting of any content containing sexually explicit conduct.”

The video-sharing platform continues “In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform, and to continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines.”  Creators on the platform will still be allowed to post nude images as long as they comply with the site’s Creators will continue to be allowed to post content containing nudity as long as it is consistent with our Acceptable user policies. More information will be available to the public in the coming days, the company added “OnlyFans remains committed to the highest levels of safety and content moderation of any social platform.” However, OnlyFans didn’t respond to inquiries as to its definition of sexually explicit content or how it expected this would impact the company’s bottom line.

The platform has become the real standard for independent creators doing adult content. Over the pandemic, it grew increasingly popular as the adult industry, like others, had its normal operations interrupted. It has proved an invaluable asset for many creators, professional and aspiring, who used the platform to directly monetize fans without interacting with notoriously predatory established adult industry companies. Content creators earn money from users who subscribe to their content—the “fans”. It also allows these content creators to receive funding directly from their fans on a monthly basis as well as one-time tips and the pay-per-view feature. The content subscription platform based in London, England, United Kingdom claims more than 2 million creators — who it says have earned more than $5 billion on its platform — and 130 million users. Last year, the site generated $2 billion in sales (of which OnlyFans receives a 20 percent cut).

The company is seeking investors at a valuation of more than $1 billion but has had difficulty attracting investors, according to a report from Axios, mainly because of the proliferation of porn on the site (Axios notes the company didn’t mention pornography at all in its pitch deck to investors). Despite its ability to draw eyeballs, and the safer environment it provides sex workers, online porn remains a hard sell for investors. Along with the announcement about sexually explicit content, OnlyFans published its first monthly transparency report for July on Thursday, “as part of our commitment to safety and transparency.”

OnlyFans in this case says openly that it is abandoning adult content due to pressure from banks. While the company has recently debuted and promoted its OFTV app, an SFW alternative to the main OnlyFans site, and of course there are many creators on the platform who do not produce sexually explicit content, this will be an enormous blow to both the sex work industry and to the company itself. Affected creators were not notified ahead of time.

“This is going to shatter a lot of people’s main source of income, the foundation of their entire business,” said Tristan West, a top creator of adult content on OnlyFans. “Me and a lot of people have got to do a lot of work to secure our business, move our assets, move our content to another platform. It’s not the end of the world, but this is a huge setback. Thankfully, we have a couple of months,” West said. “OnlyFans was the top platform in this market but they’re not the only one. It’s an opportunity for someone else to come around and do better for sex workers and online creators.”