OnlyFans says it will prohibit users from posting any “sexually explicit conduct” starting in October, but will allow nude photos and videos

- Popularity of the website has exploded during the pandemic — Many sex workers use OnlyFans to charge customers online

Bloomberg 2021-08-20 Lucas Shaw

Context & Ripple Effects

Pandemic-era demand had already moved performers toward direct, subscription-based services, including OnlyFans, ManyVids, and Snapchat, as described in the shift to more intimate online services. OnlyFans’ new rules therefore alter the operating terms for a creator base that uses the platform to charge customers directly.

The policy was later specified to bar acts including intercourse, masturbation, and genital exhibition in the published content rules, before OnlyFans suspended the planned ban after receiving assurances. The sequence makes the platform’s dependence on rules acceptable to its underlying partners visible to creators and customers alike.

First-order effects

OnlyFans creators whose paid offerings include prohibited conduct must remove or rework that material, while subscribers lose access to that category of content on the platform.
OnlyFans narrows the content it will host while preserving nude photos and videos, creating an immediate distinction between permitted nudity and prohibited explicit conduct.

Second-order effects

ManyVids and Snapchat become more relevant alternatives for performers seeking services aligned with the pandemic-era move toward direct online monetization.
OnlyFans’ later suspension of the ban gives creators a reason to treat platform policy as a business risk, rather than relying on a single service’s rules remaining stable.

Third-order effects

Creator subscription platforms are likely to compete not only on audience and monetization tools but also on whether their content rules support the business models that built their supply of creators.
The reversal points to a structural tension in direct-to-fan platforms: policies shaped by outside operating constraints can rapidly conflict with the creators and customer demand that drive the platform.

The trend: Direct-to-fan creator platforms are becoming governed as much by content-policy constraints as by the subscription tools that enabled their growth.

Discussion

@danprimack Dan Primack on x
Full statement from OnlyFans: https://twitter.com/...
@taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x
“The company will prohibit users from posting any sexually explicit conduct, starting in October. Creators will still be allowed to post nude photos and videos, provided they're consistent with OnlyFans' policy.” https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@conorsen Conor Sen on x
Big “shot, chaser” energy here: https://twitter.com/...
@allahliker @allahliker on x
not to do serious deals-based tweets but the onlyfans thing is instructive in that no one goes into any business enterprise anymore to “fill a need” or even “make money” everyone is just secretly dreaming of their big SPAC/IPO/merger payday
@danprimack Dan Primack on x
OnlyFans makes tons of money, per leaked financials, and has millions of users. It can't find a big outside investor. Sex sells, but it also scares off VCs. https://www.axios.com/...
@raewitte Rae on x
Looking forward to the explainer on which nudes qualify as sexually explicit and which dont for the future of onlyfans 😑
@danprimack Dan Primack on x
The new OnlyFans TOS is gonna be wild.
@film_girl Christina Warren on x
People keep using Tumblr as a corollary for OnlyFans. Sort of. Tumblr sold for $1b on the back of the pr0n we all knew was there but that the public didn't talk about. It wasn't until the end of 2018, 18 months after Verizon completed its purchase of Yahoo that it purged the pr0n
@melissagira Melissa Gira Grant on x
2 million creators. $5B paid out. If these numbers are anywhere near accurate, imagine how many people were just essentially fired with no notice, in a pandemic, with eviction moratoriums lifting... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@micsolana Mike Solana on x
“free speech” is effectively irrelevant when a small handful of people, all of the same class, and almost entirely of the same opinion, control banking. right wing social media platforms are next. https://twitter.com/...
@harronwawker Stasis Baby on x
not surprising but still disgusting that onlyfans is choosing banks, VC investors, big tech (apple + google dont allow adult content on their app stores, hence no app until the “sfw” one announced this week), and profits over the sex workers using its platform
@noahpinion @noahpinion on x
@micsolana Aren't you a big-time VC, man? OnlyFans has good financials. Why don't you invest in a competitor that allows sexually explicit content, and blow em out of the market?
@loudmouthjulia Julia Alexander on x
OnlyFans' executives suggesting they don't want explicit sexual content because of the banks and future outside investors would be the perfect moment to point to blockchain eliminating a lot of those concerns, but blockchain groups could have solved it before and didn't.
@michaelaokla Michaela Okland on x
Does OnlyFans genuinely think it's going to have any value without sex workers like....
@loudmouthjulia Julia Alexander on x
Beyond upsetting that OnlyFans built a billion-dollar business on the back of sex workers, turning away now that there's capital/interest. World doesn't want another Patreon. It wants OnlyFans. OnlyFans no longer wants to be OnlyFans, despite building success via those creators.
@aedison Avery Edison on x
yes, the onlyfans change is fucking terrifying, but at least the new rules are intentionally vague in a way that will leave sex workers constantly terrified that they're about to lose a huge chunk of income for doing something they didn't know wasn't allowed!!!
@kateconger O...K on x
Has OnlyFans published anything about how they define “nudity” versus “explicit content”? https://twitter.com/...
@robrousseau Rob on x
how many of these banks and credit card companies that find the content on OnlyFans too distasteful also do business with the biggest and most exploitative porn empires
@sarahmanavis Sarah Manavis on x
Imagine having six weeks notice that your main way of earning is going to just... stop existing. And sex workers on OnlyFans have been dealing with overnight changes pretty much constantly since celebrities started using it last summer
@jasebyjason Jason Okundaye on x
Anyone celebrating or banging jokes off onlyfans throwing sex workers off its platform is a weirdo. That's livelihoods and income streams put at serious risk
@jimwaterson Jim Waterson on x
OnlyFans porn ban: -site is facing pressure from US politicians over illegal material -facing the threat of of a ban from payment processors, which could kill the site -basically a few big credit card firms are the de facto regulators for pornography now https://www.theguardian.c…
@liz_franczak Liz Franczak on x
obviously onlyfans should pivot to NFTs
@charoshane Charlotte Shane on x
Every OF-using sex worker I spoke with for this piece knew their days were numbered there. @kimberlykane summed up the sentiment perfectly. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@danprimack Dan Primack on x
ICYMI: Leaked OnlyFans financials. And why the company can't find an outside investor, even though the financials are insane. When sex doesn't sell: https://www.axios.com/...
@jasminericegirl @jasminericegirl on x
onlyfans is banning all sexually explicit content from their platform. they've also made billions off of the backs of sex workers. as someone who does sex work on OF, i'm angry for every creator that has relied on OF for an income just to be thrown out. this is so fucked up.
@nottheclick @nottheclick on x
so OnlyFans banning adult content whats next facebook banning minion memes?
@rottenindenmark Michael Hobbes on x
BackPage, Pornhub and now OnlyFans. We're in the middle of a straightforward 'won't someone think of the children?' moral panic. https://twitter.com/...
@stokel Chris Stokel-Walker on x
16,000 people earn more than $50,000 a year on OnlyFans, and 300 make more than a million https://www.axios.com/...
@tomgara Tom Gara on x
That Walter Bloomberg account is chaos, it's like 95% actual breaking headlines pulled from the Bloomberg terminal and 5% stuff he's making up, but you have to wait like five to seven minutes to find out if it's the 5% https://twitter.com/...
@the_dankknight7 @the_dankknight7 on x
What??!?!?! That's like saying Burger King is going to stop selling burgers but will keep selling fries and chicken sandwiches. Idiots...... https://twitter.com/...
@isosteph Stephanie on x
what's the line between nudity and sexually explicit is this like a no fucking policy. where does jacking off fit in. are you allowed to get naked only if you don't look hot doing it https://twitter.com/...
@aella_girl Aella on x
Is Onlyfans banning porn? I don't know. But this is a reminder how payment processors are a de facto legal system, policing what consenting adults are able to do. Also, I'm not too worried. There's other competitors ready to fill the gap. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@ericajoy Erica Joy on x
all i'm saying is i would bet that removing sex workers is not a change onlyfans is willingly making.
@morrisatlarge Chris Morris on x
So, a bit of context on the OnlyFans decision to banning sexually explicit content today from a guy who has covered the business of adult entertainment for quite a few years for CNBC, Fortune and others... (1/18)
@hkesvani @hkesvani on x
It might be easy to see the Onlyfans situation as an outlier (and in certain ‘left’ circles, a moral triumph) but at the end of the day, beyond ruining the livelihoods of the users that built it, it's another example of further corporatization of a smaller, restricted internet
@shiraovide Shira Ovide on x
Rough math: a 17-20% take rate for OnlyFans? Closer to Etsy level than an app store. from @danprimack https://www.axios.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@dannerdcubed Daniel Hardcastle on x
I'm bad at business, but I'm not “long-term sustainability via banning the only thing our company is known for” bad. https://twitter.com/...
@danprimack Dan Primack on x
It's remarkable how many people list OnlyFans as their workplace on LinkedIn.
@martinsfp Martin Sfp Bryant on x
Turn OnlyFans into a co-operative owned by sex workers. https://twitter.com/...
@noahpinion @noahpinion on x
The unstoppable force of internet porn is meeting the immovable object of legal liability, and the immovable object is winning.
@nlrg_ Turbulent Princess on x
OnlyFans' FY 2022 free cash flow is enough to buy Tumblr in 2013, or to buy Tumblr in 2019 four hundred times https://www.axios.com/...
@ifynwadiwe IFY on x
In other news, Twitter will prohibit tweets in October as well. https://twitter.com/...
@sashaperigo Sasha Perigo on x
When the OnlyFans pornography ban takes effect thousands of people will lose their primary source of income. This is absolutely devastating. https://www.theverge.com/...
@cathyreisenwitz Cathy Reisenwitz🥑 on x
Totally expected. Same thing w patreon and tumbler. Platforms get rich off sex workers and then boot us. Luckily there are alternatives like mygirlfund, AVNstars, manyvids, etc. https://www.zerohedge.com/...
@rmac18 Ryan Mac🙃 on x
Aug. 19, 2021: -FB announces you can hang in a virtual office using VR -OnlyFans bans porn aka the worst day on the internet
@aricohn Ari Cohn on x
There are probably easier ways to go out of business, but maybe sliding into irrelevance is their kink. https://twitter.com/...
@hasanthehun Hasanabi on x
visa & mastercard buckling to evangelical psychos & successfully pressuring onlyfans to limit the sex work on their platforms is awful but expected. caving to that demand when sex work built your platform is a betrayal. everyone loves sex work but dehuminazes the ppl who make it
@taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x
“OnlyFans is how I pay my rent. I feed myself from this,” said Kenneth Pabon, 22, an OnlyFans creator in New York who joined the platform last year after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic https://www.nytimes.com/...
@hkesvani @hkesvani on x
And it's remarkable considering that less than a decade ago - in the context of the Snowden leaks and the death of Aaron Schwartz- that the broader fight for open access, communal internet, is basically muted in mainstream discourse, and made even harder by tech conglomerates
@morrisatlarge Chris Morris on x
So, It's not hard to see why OnlyFans did what it did. The question is, will that decision doom it? Sex workers are furious and (rightfully) feel betrayed. And fans who spend on the site aren't happy either. (17/18)
@snowden Edward Snowden on x
Bitcoin fixes this. https://twitter.com/...
@robin__craig Robin Craig on x
onlyfans jokes are in poor taste imo when people are seeing their livelihoods cut off with little notice and will potentially be pushed into riskier forms of sex work (especially as ways to check client safety have been removed, like backpage, due to ‘anti trafficking’ laws)
@alyssabereznak Alyssa Bereznak on x
tech companies love screwing over their most dedicated users lol https://twitter.com/...
@thedailyshow @thedailyshow on x
You misheard us. We said Big Tech should be held accountable for starting *insurrections* https://twitter.com/...
@morrisatlarge Chris Morris on x
Axios got ahold of the pitch deck for OnlyFans. The company had net revenue of $375 million last year and expects $1.2 billion this year. It has paid out $3.2B to its creators life to date. The company makes 20% off every financial transaction. (15/18X) https://www.axios.com/...
@veenadubal Veena Dubal on x
The ways in which the investors who drove this decision define “vice” is perverse. Leaving sex workers whose livelihoods have come to depend on OnlyFans out to dry...no problem. Watching porn...evil. 🙄 We need to have critical conversations about what constitutes a moral economy.…
@jimwaterson Jim Waterson on x
@HKesvani Feels that the credit card duopoly with different regulatory pressures to the tech companies are the new frontier here.
@nclrights @nclrights on x
DEVASTATING NEWS. During the pandemic, many sex workers moved to the safety of online platforms to make ends meet - w/ many of them unable to access vital unemployment benefits. This move will only drive sex work back to unsafe underground conditions. https://www.theverge.com/...
@tarletong Tarleton Gillespie on x
What do you think it means, that a site committed to sexually explicit content that's legal and to protecting its creators, can't include sexually explicit material on its site and still have the financial infrastructure to protect its creators? https://www.theverge.com/...
@scottwbradford Scott W. Bradford on x
Wow I just cannot believe Twitter banned tweets and Facebook banned conspiracy theories! https://twitter.com/...
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
OnlyFans? more like NoFans now https://twitter.com/...
@mckenziewark Chica Marx on x
FFS. Built off the backs of sex workers, shut out once again by Wall st. Let's see if this one also fails. https://www.theverge.com/...
@asemota Osaretin Victor Asemota on x
“OnlyFans is one of the creator economy's largest and most successful platforms. And investors are content to watch its success from afar.” We should help them 😂 OnlyFans has tons of users, but can't find investors https://www.axios.com/...
@ashleevance Ashlee Vance on x
OnlyFeet does not have the same ring to it
@morrisatlarge Chris Morris on x
Leo Radvinsky is the majority owner of OnlyFans. He's also the founder of MyFreeCams, one of the largest “CamGirl” sites in the adult industry. Between those two companies, he has made himself one of the most powerful people in porn. (3/18)
@casparsalmon Caspar Salmon on x
Ooh nice, the business model adopted by Tumblr, the company that is now bigger than ever https://twitter.com/...
@naijaflyingdr Dr Ola Brown on x
Only fans net revenue: 2020: $375 million 2021: $1.2 billion 2022: $2.5 billion Sex sells, based on the company financials, but it also scares off venture capitalists. https://www.axios.com/...
@calbucci Marcelo Calbucci on x
It seems OF creators will have to become actual accountants. https://twitter.com/...
@vahn16 Nathan Grayson on x
saw that onlyfans is banning sexually explicit content and immediately thought of something very smart (but also very grim) @acvalens told me earlier this year https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@grogsgamut Greg Jericho on x
“Our customers buy Duff for its robust taste not its alcoholic content...” https://twitter.com/...
@theferocity Saeed Jones on x
Imagine being an OnlyFans exec, and watching Tumblr fumble the bag the way they did and then, a few years later, deciding to do exactly what Tumblr did. Y'all are some goofy, sex worker-hating bamas. I wish you nothing but limp, dry, dusty loins.
@reckless Nilay Patel on x
A mismanaged media company with hazy upside and major execution challenges... AT&T is gonna buy OnlyFans huh
@hkesvani @hkesvani on x
This is something that's going to affect everything from freedom of speech and expression, to the right to privacy and protection. The Facebook ‘metaverse’ already shows us what the next stage of the game is in terms of consolidation and what the tech industry actually envisions
@mikeelgan Mike Elgan on x
In related news, Twitter bans snark. https://twitter.com/...
@ericnewcomer Eric Newcomer on x
what's next netflix without the movies
@postcultrev Post-Culture on x
A lot of people are getting the OnlyFans story wrong, and the reality of it is a lot more damaging and concerning to both the livelihood of sex workers and online freedom in general.
@petersterne Peter Sterne🌹 on x
This BBC article strongly implies that OnlyFans suddenly announced its new anti-porn policy in order to get ahead of a damaging BBC investigation into the company's internal policies. https://www.bbc.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@bradesposito Brad Esposito on x
“The BBC has seen examples of some of this banned content. In one video, a man is seen eating faeces. In another, a man pays homeless people to have sex with him on camera.” https://www.bbc.com/...
@annolivarius Dr. Ann Olivarius on x
OnlyFans' takes 20% of a performer's earnings. The disincentive to crack down hard on popular but illegal content is clear. Excellent investigative reporting by @BBCNews shows exactly how OnlyFans fails to solve this problem. https://www.bbc.com/...
@fennecferox @fennecferox on x
the same people banning all porn when its profitable will tolerate literal child porn when its profitable im shocked https://twitter.com/...
@dearestdr Dr. Benway on x
As disgusting as coprophagia is, the only contravention of the rules would be the promotion of self-harm, as eating faeces only poses a risk to the eater. If this is the case, why doesn't OnlyFans also remove all anorexic members for promoting self-harm? https://www.bbc.com/... h…
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
The BBC was about to publish an investigation where OnlyFans moderators admitted the site is lenient towards prostitution & underage users. Seems they decided the fallout would get them banned by payment processors like happened to Pornhub so they pivoted https://www.bbc.com/...
@rmac18 Ryan Mac🙃 on x
And here we thought OnlyFans did this because of financial troubles... https://www.bbc.com/...
@robaeprice Rob Price on x
“Internal documents, leaked to BBC News, reveal that OnlyFans allows moderators to give multiple warnings to accounts that post illegal content on its online platform before deciding to close them.” https://www.bbc.com/...

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