OnlyFans broke the Internet by announcing an intention to change its ‘acceptable content’ policy that many are interpreting as a ban on porn. Given that platform is known for NSFW content, and has become wildly popular thanks to sex workers making online content, the backlash was fast and loud. It seems unbelievable – is OnlyFans really going to ban porn? When you dig into the detail, the answer is more nuanced.
UPDATED 21 Aug 2021
What are the basic details of the OnlyFans ‘porn ban’?
As first reported by Bloomberg, OnlyFans is changing its policy on what content is allowed to be posted by creators on the platform. According to information provided to Bloomberg, nude photos and videos will not be affected, but content that is ‘sexually explicit’ will be subject to new terms from 1st October.
The types of content that is already banned under the existing policy include all the things you would expect: anything featuring minors, animals, weapons or ‘dangerous goods’, content that appears to be non-consensual or coerced, etc.
OnlyFans has not made an official statement nor announced what will be defined as ‘sexually explicit’ – this is likely to change in the coming days (and we’ll update here when it does).
Update: OnlyFans has shared the updated version of its Acceptable Use policy which includes an additional clause banning “actual or simulated sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, between persons of any sex; actual or simulated masturbation; any exhibition of the anus or genitals of any person which is extreme or offensive; actual or simulated material depicting bodily fluids commonly secreted during sexual conduct.” The new policy states than any sexually explicit content already on the platform must be deleted by 1 December 2021.
This is in line with responses that OnlyFans creators have received when reaching out to the platform , understandably worried that it may kill an important source of income for them. The platform insists it will continue to allow ‘adult content’ (i.e.: nudity)to be published and monetised. There is even some suggestion that any ban on explicit content would not apply to verified creators, but would apply to unverified users – this is yet to be confirmed by OnlyFans.
THREAD: there’s a lot of justifiable anger at OnlyFans right now for betraying the sex workers who made them rich. That’s justified. In the end tho, like most tech issues, the root of this problem is monopoly power. OF was running a business in a “store” they rent instead of own.
— Evan Greer (@evan_greer) August 20, 2021
Why did this happen now?
There are two main reasons why OnlyFans is updating it’s acceptable content terms.
The first, and most obvious, is that the tech company is currently looking for investors. According to Axios, the platform has been looking for a ‘strategic partner’ for months – this would ordinarily be a really easy task for a company valued at USD$2 billion, with USD$1.2 billion in net revenue. But investors have been scared off by the very thing that makes OnlyFans so popular: sex content.
The second reason is a BBC investigation into the moderation process – or lack thereof – in place for OnlyFans. The investigation found that accounts that posted content in clear breach of the platform’s content policy were often allowed to continue posting. This includes accounts posting explicit videos and photos of under 18s.
OnlyFans’ decision to tighten up its content policy (the so-called ‘porn ban’) has come after the BBC contacted the company about a leaked moderation manual.
Why don’t investors want to fund OnlyFans?
Investors are wary of putting their money into OnlyFans in large part because of credit card and payment process companies. As a subscription-based product (a user pays for a subscription to creators and the company takes a percentage of the subscription fee) OnlyFans is reliant on third-party payment processors.
But porn has historically had a very high rate of cancelled charges and refunds, which is an added cost for the credit card and payment companies. It’s largely due to post-wank regret or people denying to their partner/family members that they purchased porn and asking their credit card company to reverse the “fraudulent” charge.
If these companies decide to block all payments from OnlyFans, the platform would crumble and the investors would lose all their money. It’s a very high risk.
There are also the controversial SESTA/FOSTA laws introduced in the US last year. While the intention is supposedly to illegal sex work and stop sex trafficking, in reality the laws make it even easier for the government to censor any sex content and makes it nearly impossible for sex workers to operate online (during a pandemic, no less!) In Australia, the Online Safety Act is similarly concerning for how it could be used to censor online porn.
On top of all of that, the existing issues with OnlyFans’ content moderation make it an even riskier proposition – no investor or financial company wants to be linked to potentially illegal sexual content, no matter how rich it might make them.
Thought: No porn company or affiliated company can be a publicly traded entity. Is this the growth potential OnlyFans is looking for? To go public? Greed is the end of a great many things including the fall of Rome. 🤷♀️
— Whitney Wickham🌛 (@WhitneyWickham) August 20, 2021
What questions does this raise?
From our point of view, this raises two big questions:
- Why does a company reportedly already valued at USD$2bill need to pursue additional investment at all? Especially when that investment will remove the very product that made the company so valuable in the first place? Hey Alexa, what is ‘corporate greed’? In January, OnlyFans launched a safe-for-work app, OFTV, with no nudity allowed at all (think of it as a Patreon competitor). The policy changes for the OnlyFans website signals that the company may shift its focus entirely to OFTV under the assumption that it will be more lucrative for founder Tim Stokely and investors.
- How important is a founder’s story and background when we decide which companies, products and platforms to use and support? OnlyFans undeniably built its popularity and financial success off of the content that sex workers made for the platform. Many sex workers are pointing to a big lesson in this story: That a platform founded by a non-sex worker will never put their needs first, because it won’t truly be created to help them – it’s created to exploit them to make the same kinds of people rich (Stokely is a businessman and son of an investment banker, and Leo Radvinsky who owns 75% of the business is a billionaire). Should this critical thinking apply to every business we support with our hard-earned dollars?
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