After facing enormous backlash from creators, subscribers, and the public, OnlyFans is reversing its upcoming ban on the sexually explicit content that propelled the platform to international success.
“We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change,” the company said in a tweet Wednesday morning.
OnlyFans said creators will receive an official notice about the reversal in an email.
It’s unclear if the suspension of the policy change is temporary. “The proposed October 1, 2021 changes are no longer required due to banking partners’ assurances that OnlyFans can support all genres of creators,” OnlyFans said in a statement to BuzzFeed News.
A subscription platform where fans can follow and pay for content from independent creators, OnlyFans became massively successful due to adult content. It was one of the only online platforms where sex workers could create and control their content while making money off of it.
Last Thursday, the company announced that sexually explicit content will be banned beginning Oct. 1, saying it had to “comply with the requests of banking partners and payout providers.”
“The change in policy, we had no choice — the short answer is banks,” CEO and founder Tim Stokely told the Financial Times on Tuesday.
OnlyFans’ abrupt U-turn in that decision — and the world of uncertainty that the company has thrown creators into — has angered sex workers who say they have already seen an exodus in followers and income after the company’s announcement of the ban.
Addie, who performs under the name xaddiebabyx, told BuzzFeed News that since OnlyFans’ announcement last week, she has “lost countless fans, which is money [she uses] to put food on [her] table.”
“They were so quick to throw us to the curb when sex workers are the reason OnlyFans has the huge platform they have today,” she said. “It made me laugh reading their post today, thinking we were all going to come back to them, even though they have only suspended the policy change.”
Omi, an adult content creator who said she has lost more than 500 followers and $4,000 in income on the platform in the past week, told BuzzFeed News she was irked that OnlyFans tweeted about the reversal before informing creators. Hours after the company’s tweet, Omi said she still hadn’t heard directly from the platform.
She said she does not trust OnlyFans to support sex workers given how evasive the company has been about the initial ban — but that has put her in a difficult position.
“The dilemma is that I’ve built a thriving five-figure business and made over half a million on this site, so it gives me major anxiety not knowing what to do,” Omi said. “They have no idea how hard we worked to build these fan bases just to lose them overnight.”
OnlyFans’ behavior in the past week has not come as a surprise for adult content creators like Skylar Shark, considering how the platform has treated them in the past.
“Every single dime that company has made has revolved around porn whether they want to admit it or not,” Shark added. “I think it’s hilarious now watching them try to pick up the pieces from a vase they threw at the wall.”
But Shark will continue to use OnlyFans and hope that they do the right thing by sex workers.
“Because as a sex worker it becomes very hard to fully trust any site you work for at the end of the day,” they said.
