OnlyFans models slam site's BAN on porn despite lockdown boom making company £1.7billion during pandemic

ONLYFANS models have slammed the site's ban on porn after the company boomed during the pandemic and raked in £1.7billion.

The UK-based firm is set to ban raunchy content after pressure from the company's payment providers and banking partners.

From October 1, members will still be able to post some nude content, but it will need to obey the new OnlyFans policy banning sexually explicit images and video.

Since the start of the Covid pandemic, OnlyFans said its membership surged to 130 million users across the world as adult entertainers signed up during lockdowns to share X-rated content.

And revenue rocketed by 553 per cent in the year to November 2020, with users spending £1.7billion on the site – a seven-fold increase, the Financial Times reported. 

CEO Tim Stokely, the Essex businessman who started the company in 2016 with his dad, said he expected pre-tax profits to top £300million ($417million) in the next financial year. 

OnlyFans creators can post a range of content from cooking to fitness videos – but it is best known for adult content. 

Some creators post nude videos and photos that subscribers can only view by paying a tip or a monthly fee – and the site has earned its reputation as the hot spot for influencers to post sexually explicit photos and videos.

OnlyFans stars have slammed the new ban – with many creators accusing the company of turning its back on the sex workers who made the platform so profitable.

Former V8 Supercars racer Renee Gracie, who reportedly made more than $2million since joining OnlyFans last year, said the move was nothing more than a free marketing ploy.

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"OnlyFans did something similar a while back. They made an announcement of clamping down on adult content, but it never happened," the 26-year-old told Daily Mail Australia.

"It could just be the company looking for attention.

"Porn is a trillion-dollar industry. It’s never going away. The age of selling content is here."

'KICK IN THE TEETH'

Vanessa Sierra, one of Australia's most popular OnlyFans stars, said she saw the crackdown coming.

"It was bound to happen. My ex (YouTube personality Luke Erwin) and I knew this would happen since last year," she said. 

The former Love Island contestant – who doesn't post hardcore content – added: "They're only removing porn, not nudity, so it won't impact me."

Another content creator tweeted on Thursday: "OnlyFans is banning all sexually explicit content from their platform. They’ve also made billions off of the backs of sex workers.

"As someone who does sex work on OF, I’m angry for every creator that has relied on OF for an income just to be thrown out. This is so f***ed up."

'DISGUSTING'

Another wrote: "I can only imagine how many sex workers are feeling blindsided and terrified for their incomes right now. This is a slap in the face to those who made OnlyFans what it is today."

Journalist Harron Walker also criticised the company’s choice – calling it "disgusting".

And Swarm – a UK collective founded and led by sex workers – described the ban as a "kick in the teeth" after a "horrendous 18 months" during the pandemic.

"The news that OnlyFans will ban sex workers from making an income from the platform from October has come as a very painful blow, after an already horrendous 18 months," the charity said in a statement.

"Many of us saw this ban coming, but it’s still a kick in the teeth. It’s far from the first time that sex workers have been instrumental in building a platform, only to be banned once it becomes more mainstream."

OnlyFans remains committed to the highest levels of safety and content moderation of any social platform.

It added: "Like every crisis, this will hit more marginalised workers on OF disproportionately.

"Sex workers with caring responsibilities or disabilities, and those who don’t earn enough to have built up savings, will find it harder to move onto different platforms or types of sex work."

OnlyFans released a statement on Thursday announcing the change at "the requests of its banking partners and payment providers".

It said: "In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform, and to continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines.

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

"OnlyFans remains committed to the highest levels of safety and content moderation of any social platform. All creators are verified prior to being able to upload any content to OnlyFans, and all uploaded content is checked by automated systems and human moderators."

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