OnlyFans has heard the massive backlash against its plans to ban porn from its platform and has announced a screeching u-turn.
In a statement posted Wednesday, the company confirmed: “Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard. We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change. OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators.”
It was just last week that the subscription-based platform shocked users by saying it would no longer allow “sexually explicit conduct,” a move that would have destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of creators who turned it into such a wildly popular site. In its new statement, OnlyFans said creators will be emailed about the change of plan later today.
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The ban had caused uproar among creators and users alike. OnlyFans creator Zia told The Daily Beast last week that the ban would extinguish her main source of income, and commented: “Sex workers made OnlyFans what it is today... What a bunch of pricks. They hoed us.”
The company blamed the move on a struggle to find investors, saying that it had decided to ban adult content following “requests of our banking partners and payout providers.” OnlyFans hasn’t explained how it’s managed to plug that investment gap in the space of a week.
In a note addressed “Dear sex workers” posted last week, it said: “The OnlyFans community would not be what it is today without you. The policy change was necessary to secure banking and payment services to support you. We are working around the clock to come up with solutions.”
It’s possible OnlyFans may have been able to use the public backlash—and the threat of a mass exodus from the site—as leverage against investors. In an FT interview published a day ago, the platform’s founder Tim Stokely said he’d “absolutely” welcome porn back if banks allowed it, telling the paper: “The change in policy, we had no choice—the short answer is banks.”
But, however the platform managed to reverse the change, it’s clear that it has damaged the trust of its content creators. Its Wednesday statement was followed by a chorus of tweets from creators who said that they had lost hundreds of subscribers since the ban was announced last week.
One former content creator, Seraphina, wrote: “Do you honestly think that this is going to bring everyone back? Bc you’re wrong. If you are thinking about returning to [OnlyFans], think hard about that. They took our hard work, built their notoriety, and then threw us to the curb. No ty.”
