Video-sharing site OnlyFans, best known for its creators' adult videos and photos, will ban vocal sexual content from October 1. First reported by Bloomberg, the company says it is making the changes due to pressure from its banking and payment provider partners, although a BBC investigation found the company was generous to creators who posted illegal content Was.
"To ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform, and to continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must continue to evolve our content guidelines," OnlyFans said in a statement emailed to The Verge.
Creators will be allowed to post nude images on the platform as long as they comply with the site's acceptable use policy. More information will be available in the coming days, the company said: "Fans Only is committed to the highest level of security and content moderation of any social platform."
However, according to the BBC, the moderation of the site is not up to that standard. It reports that a "compliance manual" instructed employees to give users three strikes, even though the content it was removing was illegal. The BBC also reports that the more successful accounts, which had a larger customer base, were handled by a different team and given additional warnings if the site's rules were broken.
OnlyFans boasts more than 2 million creators – of whom it says have earned over $5 billion on its platform – and 130 million users. Last year, the site generated $2 billion in sales (of which only fans got a 20 percent cut).
The company is seeking investors at a valuation of over $1 billion, but has had difficulty attracting investors, according to a report by Axios, primarily due to the proliferation of porn on the site (Axios notes that the company has not mentioned pornography at all (its pitch deck for investors).
Despite its ability to attract attention and provide a safe environment for sex workers, online porn is a tough sell for investors. Remember that as Verizon prepared to sell Tumblr to Automatic, the blogging site permanently banned adult content in 2018, a highly controversial move at the time.
Along with the announcement regarding sexually explicit content, OnlyFans published its first monthly transparency report for July on Thursday, "as part of our commitment to safety and transparency."