The OnlyFans porn ban is a slap in the face for the creators who made the platform a success, and is a senseless business decision

RT spoke to content creators furious about the decision for whom it has been a valuable revenue stream and a pandemic financial life raft, who now feel they are being kicked to the curb by the people they helped make millionaires.

Last Thursday, OnlyFans – a popular online platform that enables people to post racy photos and videos in exchange for a paid subscription – announced that, starting on October 1, it would be banning any posting containing “sexually explicit conduct.”  

Blaming the move on pressure from banks, a spokesperson told Motherboard that the ban was essential to keeping the platform running.  

“In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform, and to continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines,” they said. “Creators will continue to be allowed to post content containing nudity as long as it is consistent with our Acceptable Use Policy.” 

More recently, the platform amended its Acceptable Use Policy to make it clear that it forbids any content that includes “actual or simulated sexual intercourse,” “actual or simulated masturbation,” “actual or simulated material depicting bodily fluids commonly secreted during sexual conduct,” and “any exhibition of the anus or genitals of any person which is extreme or offensive.”  

While one might argue that there’s still plenty of material to play with here, OnlyFans content creators are understandably annoyed about the move, arguing that they are being deprived of their livelihoods by the same platform they helped make rich.  

“I feel the same way as everyone on Twitter,” says Albert, a content creator in his 30s who began using the platform after losing his job due to covid-19 last year. “OnyFans made its name off of sex workers and now wants to ban them because of pressure from .....banks? It seems like the same thing that happened to Tumblr. A community gets created that empowers sex positive people and then someone who’s in charge but removed from the actual community decides to end it in the name of stopping sex trafficking when really they are hurting sex workers, especially trans sex workers, who finally have a way to make money in a safe way.” 

Since Albert’s content is relatively tame, consisting mostly of nudes and videos of him moaning out the names of his clients, he believes he’ll largely be unaffected by the decision. But he still plans on leaving the platform out of solidarity, perhaps switching over to the platform JustForFans instead.  

Kadie, 21, originally joined the platform in order to pay for her dog’s veterinary bills. She holds a regular 9-5 job, but OnlyFans provides her with a very valuable stream of income that she is now afraid she might lose given that much of her content involves self-play. 

“I feel like it’s ruining so many lives and so many of us who are just trying to make an honest living and get ahead of bills,” she said. “Most people have OnlyFans and almost all of them use it for sexual content because that’s the demand. Porn is old school. They want to communicate back and forth, especially in this pandemic being virtually sexually explicit is the way to go. By removing sexual content, they are screwing the customers and the hard-working individuals who provide that content.” 

Tia, 24, a content creator who posts photos and videos of a sexually explicit nature, feels much the same way.  

“The upcoming ban is going to create havoc for everyone currently using the site because they’ll need to get their followers to move to another platform and gain their trust again, especially the ones that have paid for six months of content up front!” she said.  

Tia uses a variety of platforms for her content, so she’s confident she’ll be able to weather the change, but she will still lose some income. And, like Albert, she’s offended by the decision on principle.  

“It’s out of the blue and kind of insulting, that they would throw everything we as ‘sex workers’ have helped them become,” she said. “Without us, it’s more than likely that it would have been a pointless website with limited use. How they expect people who have made a living from their website to adapt to something their followers don’t want is dumbfounding.”

Indeed, at first glance, OnlyFans’ decision to ban sexually explicit conduct sounds a lot like Colonel Sanders deciding to get out of the chicken business. The site might have started out with the innocent intention of allowing cooks and personal trainers to share their content, but there’s no question that it’s built its popularity and its profits on porn.  

This upcoming shift seems unfair on both its content creators and the site’s users, but perhaps it’s coming at a good time. OnlyFans exploded in April 2020, back when those of us who were in quarantine alone were deprived of physical touch. With the pandemic largely over, perhaps it’s time to venture out into the real world again.

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