OnlyFans bans sexual content, leaving its future uncertain

The only fanatics will prohibit sexually explicit content from October, prohibiting the same material that the platform has made, especially in the last year, in addition to that much of the world has been blocked.

In a statement provided to TechRadar and online widely disseminated, he stated that the platform is adopting the changes “to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payment providers”.

“To ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform, and continue to organize an inclusive community of creators and fanatics, we must evolve our content guidelines. The creators will be allowed to publish the content that contains nakedness, as long as it is consistent with our Acceptable use policy, “says the statement.

Onlyfan did not comment beyond the statement, nor clarify the position of him on non-sexual nudity; The company’s acceptable use policy only prohibits public nudity if registered or issued in regions or countries where said nakedness is illegal.

“Effective October 1, 2021, ghosts will prohibit the publication of any content that contains sexually explicit behavior. To ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform, and continue to organize an inclusive community of creators and fanatics, we must evolve our Content guidelines. The creators will continue to be allowed to publish content that contains nakedness, as long as it is consistent with our acceptable policy of use.

These changes are to meet requests from our bank partners and payment providers.

We will share more details in the coming days and we will actively support and guide our creators through this change in content guidelines.

We continue dedicated to our community of 130 million users and more than 2 million creators who have won more than $ 5 billion on our platform.

Only fanatics remain committed to the highest levels of security and content moderation of any social platform. All creators are verified before you can upload any content to the only ones, and all automatic systems are verified by automated systems and human moderators.

As part of our commitment to safety and transparency, we are releasing our first monthly transparency report for July 2021.

Ban unique that Ban could finish the massive growth of the platform seen during the pandemic

The creators of content of Onlyfan ‘not only publish adult and sexually explicit material, since musicians and other artists have used the platform to collect fans to access photos, videos and other content, but it is unquestionable that the site knows To a large extent for the first.

It is also indisputable that the popularity of the site exploded during the pandemic: the parent company Onlyfan Fenix ​​International published its strategic report of until November 2020, affirming that the total creative account jumped from 348,000 in 2019 to more than 1.6 million towards the end of 2020 , with fan numbers. 13.4 million to 82 million. The company raked at £ 1.7 billion (around $ 2.32b / AU $ 3.24b) in fan payments, compared to £ 238 million ($ 324M / AU $ 454M) to the same point in 2019. Since The fans need a 20% cut of that, their income increased from £ 44m to £ 283m, according to musically.

Since then, that number has grown to 130 million users, according to the statement of the only ones. These additional numbers include creators who have used the online platform as a source of income, while global blockages have interrupted other industries, such as retail, food and hospitality. Prohibiting sexually explicit content will also effectively start creators of adult material who rely on the platform for income.

The online response has been a combination of critics that decipher only the creators of abandonment of sexually explicit content creators who had been fundamental for their growth, together with the Bemo from which the platform is turning its back into its greatest attractive (and income flow).

But prohibiting sexual content closes a crucial income stream for some at a time of crisis, says Dr. Barbara Brents, professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and an expert in the sex industry and sex trade.

“During the pandemic, there have been a lot of sale of sexual services to depend on online platforms,” ​​said Dr. Brents to techradar through a phone call. “There are all kinds of ways in which people have purchased and sold intimacy and connection, and it has only been one of those ways in which people could earn their lives and close this like this, people who depend on that can not make an income . “

Online services train sex workers with a level of safety and physical control over detection clients, and helps that only in particular is easy to use for creators and consumers and do not trust many third parties, encouraging business Independent When a service is cut, sex workers will go to another, but not easily.

“Sex workers are resistant and many [will go to another platform] but it is not easy, and when it loses its source of income like this, it loses its ability to invest in the next thing,” said Dr. Brents. “Sex workers with more resources and the greatest capacity do it.”

Commercial

It is not clear how much of the creators and fanatics of Onlyfane use the platform to do and consume sexually explicit content, and we can only wait to October to see how much of the site’s website leaves after prohibition. But we can resort to history, even recent history: see how other sites and platforms have been gone after starting the adult content, although it is sex workers and independent creators who have suffered most.

Onlyfan: The last platform partially grown by sex workers and then prohibit sex workers

Onlyfan is far from the first platform to grow thanks to the communities that create and share sexually explicit material before prohibiting that content by a handful of reasons. For the most part, these disinfection efforts are made to comply with even larger platform policies, but as in the case of the only ones, they have also been made to meet the demands of financial institutions.

One of the best-known examples is Tumblr, which prohibited the content of adults and not safe for work (NSFW) in December 2018, according to reports, as a long-standing condition of its acquisition by Yahoo in 2016, but also after Your iOS. The application was prohibited after the discovery of images of child pornography on the site. This was perceived as a betrayal by the creators of adult content, who had built communities on the platform, as well as the LGBTQ community that had paid to share adult content, as informed by Vice. After a massive exodus of users, the site was sold in 2019 for $ 3 million, a fraction of $ 1.1 billion Verizon prices paid to acquire it in 2013, according to the edge.

In the same year, Marketplace Craigslist online closed its personal ad section, which was a crucial platform to organize adult erotic exchanges and meetings, including sex work, a movement craigslist in response to the passage of controversial trafficking sexual. and Sesta Bills. That enclosed another conduit that sex workers used to coordinate safely with the clientele online, as well as close a queer connection space, as the Washington Post reported. Another site, supports it, was pressed similarly at the end of 2019, according to the blackboard.