OnlyFans has announced that it is leaving the porn business. The company will ban users post any sexually explicit conduct beginning in October. Creators may continue to post nude photos and videos, as long as they “are consistent with OnlyFans policy,” according to the official announcement.
The company’s version is that this measure has been taken by increasing pressure from the company’s banking partners. “For ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform and continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must modify our content guidelines. “But an investigation carried out by the British channel BBC has a different version.
The porn business is the key to OnlyFans
First, let’s remember that OnlyFans has attracted more than 130 million users and has made its business millionaire by being a social network that differs from the rest for its sexual content, of nudes and also pornographic.
While on Instagram even a simple nipple is censored (unless it is from Almodóvar’s last film), the content creators at OnlyFans focus most of this content on naked bodies. OnlyFans is trying to get money from outside investors and now it says that “the changes are to meet the requests of our banking partners and payment providers.”
An official version that could be an excuse
This official version is believed to be an excuse. And it is that an investigation that the British chain BBC is carrying out and of which The Verge has echoed, shows more problems and not only that investors are more conservative: this video-sharing site could be knowingly allowing the creators to be posting illegal content on the internet.
Among other things, posts have been discovered in which content creators exploit homeless people for some of their videos. Also, a US National Security agent confessed to the BBC in a private statement that many images of child abuse are discovered. And tests were done to see if OnlyFans identified accounts created and advertised with photographs of teenagers for sale and it turned out that the website failed to identify this serious problem.
Other serious matters that the BBC has found, illegal and which it has given a preview are content that could be incest, offer of prostitution services or material with great violence. It must be remembered that the company keeps 20% of the money that a content creator makes, which would mean that some of its income would come from illegal practices, according to what the British chain has discovered.
It is also noteworthy that the company published yesterday (“coincidentally” the same day it announces its exit from the pornography business) its first data transparency report for July of this year, in which it states that “we invested a lot in the fight against child sexual exploitation online“, but he accompanies that statement with very few details.
The example of Tumblr when it moved away from porn
OnlyFans’ version that it needs funding and that is why it will abandon one of the main keys to its business model falters if we look at the example of Tumblr. This page said goodbye to porn, what was his hallmark.
According to data from Statista, Tumblr had more than 520 million monthly visitors before its porn ban in 2018. In just a couple of months, that number dropped to 370 million, a number that has continued to fall.
Yahoo! had paid in 2013 billion dollars for this social network. In 2019, Tumblr was bought by WordPress parent company Automattic for just $ 3 million. Could OnlyFans follow a similar path?
Other issues OnlyFans had been having was celebrity entry to the platform that overshadowed many of the anonymous sex workers who were a part of it. Bella Thorne, formerly one of the key teenagers of the Disney empire, made 1 million euros in one day on this platform, despite clearly indicating that she did not sell nudes. That record caused serious problems for the most anonymous sex workers they find on this platform a route of income as reported.