OnlyFans is to further limit what users can upload. (Stock photograph via Envato Elements)
OnlyFans is to ban so-called “sexually explicit” content in just a matter of weeks amid mounting pressure from banks.
The subscription service popular among amateur and professional adult entertainers, where users pay for content, said Thursday (19 August) that it will prohibit users from posting sexually explicit conduct from October.
Creators will still be allowed to post “nude photos and videos”, Bloomberg reported, so as long as they are in line with OnlyFans’ terms of service, which the British company has already tightened in recent years.
“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,” OnlyFans said in a statement.
OnlyFans ‘tosses sex workers aside’ as pressure from banks piles
OnlyFans, which hosts some one million creators worldwide according to its website, has struggled to find outside investors.
While OnlyFans has pumped out more than $3 billion in creator earnings, banks have been put off by its sexual content and baking partners and payment providers have dialled up the pressure, multiple sources confirmed to Axios.
Deep-pocketed firms have sought to distance themselves from OnlyFans as it seeks outside help at a valuation of more than $1 billion. This is despite the company’s revenue rocketing to $2.5 billion compared to $375 million just two years ago.
Facing fire from all sides, OnlyFans is among many websites that deal with adult content that has long sparred with payment processors over confusing rules over transactions.
Payments made on adult websites are considered “high-risk” by some banks as some show hesitancy over what kind of sexually explicit content websites share.
Only last year, credit card firms Mastercard and Vica cut ties with Pornhub – blocking customers from using the cards to make purchases – over accusations that Pornhub had illegal content on its website.
It comes after the service banned content-makers from uploading sexually explicit material recorded in public spaces, adding to its increasingly lengthy and, some sex workers say, stifling list of prohibited content.
Content that “was recorded in or is being broadcast from a public place where members of the public are reasonably likely to see the activities being illustrated” is now banned, according to archived versions of its terms of use.
Already, sex workers who rely on the platform for income have feared being banned for violating the stringent terms of use.
“OnlyFans would be nothing without the sex workers whose labour built it up into a major platform,” tweeted author and labour law expert Kim Kelly.
“Now it’s tossing them aside, and removing a vital source of income from a population of workers who are disproportionately marginalized and have no protections under US labour law.”