This week OnlyFans announced sexually-explicit content will be banned on the platform from October 1st. Sex workers, including New Zealand content creators, say this is a “slap in the face” from a platform that’s made billions off them.
When lockdown hit last year, Demi Hunziker knew her days as a long-haul flight attendant were over. So she joined OnlyFans.
In her first week, she says, she made $10,000. She posts “sexy and fun” photos on her main page for her subscribers, and the “explicit stuff goes down in the DMs”.
Initially she would post daily, but lately she’s whittled it down to a side hustle, posting once a week.
But as of October 1st, she says, she’s quitting the platform.
OnlyFans is a subscription-based app that lets people directly interact with and send money to content creators.
While people can post any kind of content, from celebrity shout-outs to spring fashion guides, the site has become almost synonymous with porn. But this week the company announced that as of October 1st, it will ban all “sexually-explicit” content. Nude photos will still be allowed but the porn videos that made the site famous will be banned.
Sex worker, artist and activist Demi Hunziker. Image: supplied.
Along with many other sex workers whose work has led to the enormous succes of the platform, 29-year-old Aucklander Demi says this is a “fucking slap in the face”.
“The only reason OnlyFans is so popular around the world is because of sex workers, and now that they’ve made billions and billions off us, and now they’ve got the capital and the name brand, they think they can axe sex workers from their platform.”
OnlyFans has indeed made billions and billions. Company financial data leaked to US news site Axios shows their 2021 gross merchandise value (which is basically the amount of money going between OnlyFans creators and audience) was $5.9 billion, with a 2021 net revenue for the company of $1.2 billion.
OnlyFans takes a 20 percent commission on everything a content creator earns.
The platform has more than 300 creators earning over $1 million a year, and around 16,000 creators earning $50,000 a year. There’s seven million fans spending money per month, with even more free users.
The company hasn’t released data on how many of those creators are porn performers, but Demi says “no one’s going on OnlyFans to learn recipes for cooking”.
Why is the platform distancing itself from porn?
In a statement to Re: News, OnlyFans said the changes were made “to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payout providers”.
“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,” the statement said.
Payment processing companies have recently come under increasing pressure to cut ties with sites that host adult content, as part of a wider campaign where fears of child trafficking and non-consensual sexual exploitation have led to crackdowns on the online sex industry.
In December 2020 Mastercard and Visa stopped processing payments for Pornhub, after allegations the site was hosting child sexual abuse content. In response, Pornhub implemented new rules requiring all users to be verified, and removed all unverified videos.
Then in April this year, Mastercard announced new requirements on banks to certify “that the seller of adult content has effective controls in place to monitor, block and, where necessary, take down all illegal content”.
Mastercard also now requires any site who uses its services to verify the age and identity of anyone who uploads content, for content to be reviewed before it’s uploaded and a thorough complaint resolution process.
OnlyFans also said they remain “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.”
A spokesperson for Mastercard told CNN Business they were not involved in OnlyFans’ decision to ban porn, saying “It's a decision they came to themselves”.
There’s also been speculation the platform’s involvement with sex work has scared off investors. News site Axios reported that despite OnlyFans working with a merchant bank to find investors, several investment firms have declined to invest with the company, and some venture capital funds specifically are not allowed to invest in adult content.
OnlyFans marketing certainly appears to be distancing itself from sex workers, with almost no reference to any of its porn performers on its website.
Blog posts like “OnlyFans Creators You Should Be Following July 2021” feature only smiling fitness instructors and reality tv stars, and its ‘Influencer Trends’ page details things like how to start a podcast and “pet day”.
“People love sex work but they hate sex workers,” says Demi. “The majority of most adults would consume some form of sexual content or porn but they hate the people who do it.”
Many content creators had feared something like this was coming, she says. Earlier this year, OnlyFans creators began reporting significant delays in getting paid, with it taking weeks for money to be actually transferred to their bank accounts. Demi knows someone who has been waiting a full month for the $4000 in their OnlyFans account to show up in their bank account.
When she heard the news that porn was going to be banned, she says, “it all kind of makes sense. It all kind of clicked into place.”
Porn banned but nude photos still allowed
OnlyFans has released updated terms of service saying creators are not allowed to upload any content that:
“Shows, promotes, advertises or refers to ‘sexually explicit conduct’, which means:
- actual or simulated sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, between persons of any sex;
- actual or simulated masturbation;
- any exhibition of the anus or genitals of any person which is extreme or offensive;
- actual or simulated material depicting bodily fluids commonly secreted during sexual conduct”
All existing sexually-explicit content must be deleted by December 1st.
Nude photos or content containing nudity is still allowed.
Sex worker, activist, performance artist and podcast host Vixen Temple. Photo: One For The Boys.
25-year-old Vixen Temple, who is in Dunedin for lockdown, says many content creators rely on those sexually-explicit videos. Like Demi, she joined OnlyFans when lockdown hit in 2020, and would post both nude photos and explicit videos.
Nude photos, she says, are not enough to sustain yourself.
“I know a lot of people who really rely on those custom videos. Because we’re porn stars, we’re creating porn - it's graphic but that's the purpose.”
The OnlyFans data leaked to Axios shows over 30 percent of revenue came from chats - the custom videos creators make for individuals and send through personal messages.
“That was where the money was,” says Demi. “Because it gave you the freedom to set your own prices. The money you make off the monthly subscriptions is low, because everyone knows that it goes down in the DMs.”
“You make more money selling content in the messages than you do from anything else, because you could charge anything you want.”
OnlyFans deciding that sexy nude photos are acceptable, but sexually-explicit videos are not, is yet another example of the world trying to control how women present themselves sexually, says Vixen.
“Original burlesque dancers could be naked on stage if they didn’t move. But if anything jiggled they would get arrested,” she says. “It's like the modern version of that, we can see a still image of a woman being sexy because then she can be objectified. They want to freeze us and make us not be human, just be objects for their gaze.”
Where to from here?
Vixen stopped posting to OnlyFans in January this year. The significant delays in getting paid had made it “not really worth it in the end”. But she’s concerned for how others will continue to stay afloat.
“People will say, ‘Oh just move onto a different site’. But you have to understand that we can’t move all of our paying customers, it's like moving your entire office. Some of your customers will come with you but not everyone is able to.”
The best way to help content creators, she says, is to pay for porn. “Buy porn directly from the source, it's my advice to everyone right now.”
As for Demi, on October 1st her OnlyFans profile will go dark. “I know a lot of other sex workers will as well, it’s like we’ve created an online union. We’re gonna stage a walkout.”
As for what she’s going to do? “I lost my job cos of the pandemic, so I thought, oh I can start an OnlyFans. Then we’re in lockdown again cos of the pandemic, and now we’re shut out OnlyFans.”
“It’s like, just give sex workers a break.”