OnlyFans To Ban “Sexually Explicit Content,” With Anti-Porn Religious Groups And Fear-Mongering Politicians To Blame
The fan content platform that makes all its money from sex workers and is synonymous with porn is about to start banning porn? It seems absurd, but that’s what OnlyFans has announced today in an article that first ran on Bloomberg (that link is behind a paywall) and was later picked up by other media outlets that were all given the same statement from OnlyFans. That statement:
Effective 1 October, 2021, OnlyFans will prohibit the posting of any content containing sexually-explicit conduct. 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. Creators will continue to be allowed to post content containing nudity as long as it is consistent with our Acceptable Use Policy. These changes are to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payout providers. 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.
It’s nice to know nudity will still be allowed, but at this point (or until they clarify), I presume this means only solo nudity and nudity with no sexual contact between partners (i.e., no penetration, no ejaculation, etc.).
The key line in the OnlyFans statement is “these changes are to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payout providers.” In other words, OnlyFans was threatened by Mastercard and Visa to either remove all porn, or lose the banking giants’ support (OnlyFans obviously can’t exist without these payment processors).
So, why would Mastercard and Visa want OnlyFans to ban porn when Mastercard and Visa process payments for virtually every other porn site? Because OnlyFans is the big fish right now, and they’re the new high profile target of psychotic religious/anti-porn groups like NCOSE and Justice Defense Fund, who’ve also been successful in going after Mindgeek—the other big name in porn—all year long. As you’ll recall, Mastercard and Visa no longer process payments for Mindgeek’s Pornhub, and Mindgeek recently announced the complete shutdown of their other tube site, XTube.
Over the last few months, the deranged anti-porn bigots at NCOSE and Justice Defense Fund have contacted local, state, and federal lawmakers alleging that OnlyFans is involved in sex trafficking and child exploitation. Despite the unfounded allegations, just the mentioning of trafficking and exploitation creates automatic panic, and there’s nothing American politicians love more than to stoke fear and hysteria—especially if it involves sexuality. So, last week, lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland about the unproven “increase in child exploitation on OnlyFans,” and congressmembers asked that the Department of Justice “investigate all content sold on the platform, as well as the framework OnlyFans uses to report sales of child exploitation.” More via WWLP:
Lawmakers urged for the Department of Justice to lead an investigation into OnlyFans and focus on the prevalence of Child Sex Abuse Material on the website, and what measures it has to prevent, reduce and respond to this content; the prevalence of missing or abducted children linked to content on OnlyFans; and the use of direct messaging on OnlyFans to solicit prostitution.
Once Mastercard and Visa saw this, they no doubt made their move and threatened to stop doing business with OnlyFans, and the result is that statement from OnlyFans today, announcing that all sexually explicit content will be banned.
To be fair, you actually can’t blame OnlyFans for the ban. Had they not made their announcement today, Mastercard and Visa would’ve pulled out anyway within the next few weeks as disingenuous lawmakers and religious freaks moved forward with their agendas. And then, once the banks are gone, OnlyFans is gone, too.
Sex workers and their customers are naturally angry with OnlyFans today, but that anger is misguided. The outrage should be directed at NCOSE, Justice Defense Fund, and all of the fear-mongering politicians (including over 100 Democrats and Republicans) who are directly to blame for the ban. OnlyFans will be out of money and out of business by next year, and while that’s obviously not what they wanted, they had no choice. Just like the next pornography business with mainstream name recognition will have no choice when these spineless lunatics come for them.
Here’s the full letter (note all of the politicians who signed it) sent to the DOJ last week, which led to the banks pressuring OnlyFans, which then led to the subsequent OnlyFans announcement today.
FINAL – Wagner Letter to DOJ Re OnlyFans (102)
