Popular video-sharing platform OnlyFans, which became very famous for its creators’ adult videos and photos will no longer allow sexually explicit content by 1st October. According to Bloomberg, the company says it is making the changes because of pressure from its banking and payment provider partners, though a BBC investigation found that the company had not been tough on creators who had posted illegal content.
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OnlyFans is seeking investors at a valuation of more than $1 billion but has had difficulty attracting investors, according to a report from Axios, mainly because of the promotion of pornographic content on the site (Axios notes the company didn’t mention pornography at all in its pitch deck to investors).
OnlyFans says it has more than 2 million creators — who it says have earned more than $5 billion on its platform — and 130 million users. Last year, the site generated $2 billion in sales (of which OnlyFans receives a 20 percent cut).
In a statement to the Verge, the company said “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 remains committed to the highest levels of safety and content moderation of any social platform.”
After 1st October, OnlyFans will allow creators on the site to post nude images as long as they comply with the site’s acceptable use policy. However, according to the BBC, the site’s moderation hasn’t been up to that standard. It reports that a “compliance manual” instructed employees to give users three strikes, even if the content that was being removed was illegal. The BBC also reports that more successful accounts, which had a larger subscriber base, were handled by a separate team and given additional warnings when they broke the site’s rules.
