Only Fans banning sexually-explicit content in October

Webmaster Discussion
#1

Figured this was coming. This will most likely destroy their platform.

LONDON — OnlyFans has released an official statement regarding their upcoming ban on content depicting “sexually-explicit conduct,” effective October 1.

The news was first announced by Bloomberg this morning.

Here is the text of OnlyFans’ 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.

We remain dedicated to our community of 130 million users and over 2 million creators that have earned over $5 billion on our platform.

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.

#2

Inevitable.

The way I see it there are two problems:

  1. The largest platforms are not moderating content and users the way all smaller sites are required to. They have much more money to invest in doing that, but they refuse to until it reaches breaking point, and by then it’s usually too late.

  2. All online business is now controlled by Apple, Google, Paypal and card companies. If they decide they don’t want you on the Internet, or they can no longer associate with you, you’re done.

On the one hand this will help traditional paysites and affiliates. We might see a little bump in sales as a result.

On the other, this throws chum in the water and the puritan dictator cult will take it as a win and be emboldened to go after legitimate adult businesses, putting more pressure on payment providers to cut their ties to all other adult business.

1 Like
#3

Big news… I guess it was expected with what happened to Pornhub.

I doubt we will see any increase in sales or traffic though, if anything it might just benefit a few others like pornhub (with their model program) and justforfans.

#4

Im wondering if JustForFans will see a similar fate long term, I can only assume in my head this is related to the new Mastercard regulations which from the questionnaire we were sent from our billers, asking us for specifics of our business model, how our scenes are produced, how we verify 2257 documents, how we prevent human trafficking, how we verify an ID is actually real, and how we check all 2257 documents for each scene produced, and more importantly, how we police the fact our content is not promoted in an illegal way or to not allow references to CSAM content or models being “too young” in how its marketed for instance, none of this is really an issue for a studio since we already have systems in place on our production side, and only have a moderate affiliate base who we can monitor appropriately.

For something like onlyfans, I would think its almost impossible for every 2257 / Consent document to be checked, to ensure it has the correct wording, to verify IDs for models for scenes filmed 2 years ago when models may have fallen out with the person since a scene was made, I would think its impossible for them to build at this point that repository of documentation, it was acceptable (to them) for you to tag a model who is in a scene to link the other models ID for instance, but that does not give consent for the scene or any release for the scene, just linking the other person is over 18.

On the second point is marketing, how in heavens earth could onlyfans realistically check every tweet that points to their site and check the wording in such tweets meets the appropriate standards for marketing according to the rules of these new regulations. Especially when they have hundreds of thousands of content producers there.

So in cutting back to my initial point, the same points would ring true in my head at least for Justforfans or any other platform that sells in this way (giving 75-80% of sales money to models)… I know the 2257/consent scrutiny at ManyVids is very robust for instance, but they also take a 40% commission which drives a lot of the models base away, I think there needs to be a real realisation from models that if they want to act like studios they need to incur the costs that studios incur also, when I consider what we spend on streaming costs alone, plus the fact we pay a higher percentage as a “High Risk Client” with our billers, need admin staff for covering 2257, contracts and releases, from a models perspective they should see it as a good deal being able to earn 60% of their sales, not having to deal with technical issues or the server side of the business but alas we are in a world where people expect things for very little, as we all know the internet is free right??? :rofl:

2 Likes
#5

Yes it makes sense that the same fate will happen to other sites and services. Why wouldn’t it?

Like you say, I never understood how they can verify and check all content pushed out on these networks.

#6

One of the easiest things that could have been done from the beginning with all these sites would be simply someone has to upload 2257 docs per upload and someone approves it before publishing… but of course that increases staff coatings meaning the payouts cannot be as high for the model side. It’s the business model of ManyVids, not that I am promoting them as the best there are surely others doing the same but this only covers one point the checking of marketing by individuals and prevention of human trafficking will be a whole other mine field.

#7

I doubt OnlyFans will give two shits about the adult content creators they kick off their platform, and the only regrets I think they will have will be regretting not doing it sooner. The money we see in adult businesses seems big to us but it’s barely a rounding error in the non-adult world.
The fans of just a handful of K-pop groups could make up for all those lost adult creator fans combined, so this is a good move for them financially.

Remember, PayPal started out as a great way to safely pay for adult content online, but when it caught on, PayPal dumped adult and went on to be a bazillion dollar business. OF is already expecting a Billion (capital B) dollar valuation to become a publically traded company, so believing that kicking adult creators off their platform is somehow going to hurt them is very ill-informed.

Condolences to those freaking the fuck out right now.

1 Like
#8

I think you’re absolutely right, porn made them grow huge and now the logical step is to get rid of porn and they have plenty of content creators that have big followings and that are not adult. Besides, I’m sure they made enough money anyway.

1 Like
#9

Chad is correct. Look at Tik-Tok and FaceBook and Snapchat and others that don’t have adult. I have a feeling that OF will be the new “tik-tok” platform.

I am just waiting for Twitter to announce no more adult content. I’ve been telling all these guys with there OF site, don’t get to “cocky” and don’t let your ego get in the away, I’ve been doing this business since 2001 and I’ve seen a lot of changes in this industry so this decision doesn’t surprise me.

As a studio, I think this will benefit us as the studio and a few levels so best of luck to OF and going in there new direction.

#10

Like Conran I think this is a deeper issue than most are pointing out. This is about credit card companies and banks taking on the role of censor of the internet. OF is responding in part to MC rules (although i suspect that they welcome the crackdown as an excuse to kick off adult) but it will not stop here. Several large banks that often act as a middleman in international wire transfers already are refusing to send money to the accounts of adult performers and companies already, and I am sure there is more to come. Governments will not need to worry about regulating us soon as they have very handily abdicated that role to the banking industry, who are not held accountable to any electorate and very few rules.

#11

The main problem is profitability. Probably one of the reason that made OF switching their “route”.

Here a table compiled with the help of one of the most reliable MID provided out there (not a payment facilitator like Epoch or CCBill).

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c3259274-f474-4d67-82b4-ce4a5db21ca6828×450 76.4 KB

#12

They have ‘suspended’ this change.

1 Like
#13

There is definitely more to the story here WTF

Dear OnlyFans Creator,

Our Acceptable Use Policy will remain the same and may be found at: Terms of Service — OnlyFans

The proposed October 1, 2021 changes are no longer required due to banking partners’ assurances that OnlyFans can support all genres of creators.

OnlyFans is committed to providing a safe and dependable platform for all creators and their fans.

Thank you,
OnlyFans Team

#14

What a drama. I guess banks knew that another tumblr will not benefit them. It’s much easier to implement USC 2257 on OF than PH. Most OF creators are porn performers who can upload his ID for verification.

#15

The story continues…

#16

There’s quite a lot of talk about wording. They seem to have “suspended”, not permanently removed, the plan to ban adult content? In either case, I’m buying more popcorn to last until October, this won’t be done at “nevermind, all will be well”.

1 Like
#17

Here’s another OF update, very interesting…

#18

Patreon is now going down the same path, and it’s very bizarre.

All 18+ creators, whether they’re producing art, literature or video/photographic content, have been told there will be new requirements to provide identification, but they haven’t clarified any of the timeline or what will be required, how it will be vetted, who will have access to it and how it will be stored and used etc.

It’s a farce, not unlike the OnlyFans debacle.

Trying to find out information about the supposed changes, when they were allegedly going to be implemented this month, is impossible.

All adult creators have been left in limbo. They threw this grenade out there making a vague statement about needing ID, regardless of what you produce as a creator, and haven’t said anything since.

Needless to say, I’m looking at the alternatives for our fiction. Even if this process goes ahead and isn’t as disruptive as it looks like it’s going to be I no longer feel comfortable giving this company a cut of profits, not when they don’t respect us enough to give us straight answers.

#19

Didn’t OnlyFans change their mind though? They reversed the decision.

I did read something about Patreon though but didn’t think it sounded like a major change but I didn’t look into it much. Do you think it will affect all creators, including authors? Where did you read it?

#20

OnlyFans changed their mind but not entirely. They only stated that they were “suspending” their changes, and they’ve been very vague about why and how they were able to do this or whether that “suspended” plan might be enacted at any moment without warning. The card companies have either refused to comment or claimed they never said anything to OF about content and didn’t impose anything on them.

Patreon invited people to a video lecture about how things were changing talking about their need to implement ID for all creators with an 18+ account.

This is what they do. Instead of outlining the details and delivering clear policy they expect you to attend an hour long video discussion and find out if it impacts you. I think they’re trying to be “modern” when it’s really just incredibly unprofessional.

The rules are apparently the same regardless of the 18+ content you create, but anyone producing video/images has to also be able to provide ID and information for models. This is fine, because they should have been complying with 2257 anyway. But the same should not apply to artists or writers, IMO.

We already have reasonable guidelines about the content released on their platform and if we breach those we can be removed. Any moderator can check our content at any time and confirm that it conforms to their guidelines, which isn’t the same for video/photo accounts using models.

Patreon is a strange company. There are numerous reports of them spying on the social media accounts of creators and demanding they take down Tweets, Tumbrl posts or other content they don’t like and threatening them with deletion if they don’t comply. It’s really pretty sinister.

As of now we really don’t know much at all. The only “clarification” we had was a reiteration of the first statements and it wasn’t even from Patreon itself to creators, it was via Reddit and an account that makes clear they are not related to Patreon and don’t speak for them.

We haven’t had a single communication from Patreon about this since they made the initial vague statement about new requirements last month. We have no idea what ID they might require, when they will require it, how it will be used, who will have access to it etc.

Judging by just how bad this company is at communicating basic policy decisions I think a lot of creators are very worried that we’ll all be thrown under the bus without warning.

We’re currently in the process of ensuring we have a backup of all our content on there. We have enough published stories to release four compilations of fiction so we’re probably going to be working on that in the next month. We brought all our Patrons to the platform via our own efforts so there’s no reason we can’t market our fiction directly to them via other means.

The only question is whether we can do it successfully enough to match the monthly income from Patreon.