OnlyFans insists it’s not a porn site as regulatory crackdown looms

OnlyFans has launched a charm offensive with regulators in the United Kingdom where it’s based — insisting that it’s not really a porn site.

Executives the fast-growing smut platform have pledged to make its operations more transparent as lawmakers in its country aim to crack down on “illegal material online” such as that “relating to terrorism and child exploitation and abuse,” according to Bloomberg.

OnlyFans strategy chief Kelly Blair told Bloomberg that OnlyFans wants to change the public perception of its operations as “secretive” and instead wants to open up the lines of communication with “anybody who wants to come and have a conversation with us.”

“Amazon sell books on sex and gardening. Nobody calls Amazon an adult bookstore, right?” OnlyFans strategy chief Keily Blair told the news service. “Our content creators provide content on anything from gardening to lady gardens, and for some reason, OnlyFans is ‘an adult-content site’.” 

OnlyFans, which takes a 20% fee from all user-generated content, wants its critics as well as those who would look upon the site with suspicion, including journalists and financial lenders, to engage with the company.

The UK statute is expected to come into effect next year. OnlyFans has informed British lawmakers that it backs the legislation, and has denied that it was looking to skirt the rules imposed by the new law, which only applies to sites that have a large number of children users.

“We are vocal supporters of the Online Safety Bill and any suggestions that we have or would attempt to dodge its requirements are not supported by factual analysis, evidence or statements by OnlyFans,” a spokesperson told Bloomberg.

OnlyFans has tried to walk the tightrope of maintaining its vast audience that has paid its creators for explicit content while lining up funding from mainstream lenders who are wary of being associated with a platform made famous by sex workers.

OnlyFans said that it has removed more than a million posts that have violated their acceptable use policy since July 2021. The site told Bloomberg that it deactivates around 100 accounts per month.

OnlyFans, which was founded in 2016, said that it has hired more than 1,000 content moderators to sift through some 20 million posts each month that are uploaded by its more than 2 million creators.

The site became an overnight success story during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns, generating hundreds of millions of dollars.

In the that ended in November 2021, OnlyFans reported net revenue of $932 million and pre-tax profits of $433 million — up from $61 million in 2020.

Since its founding, OnlyFans has paid out $8 billion to its creators.

The site said that it screens each post using image and word-recognition systems that prioritize high-risk material, according to Bloomberg.

Last year, OnlyFans walked back plans to ban sexually explicit content from its site after creators erupted in anger, saying the move would threaten their main source of income.

Earlier this year, mainstream lenders such as Wells Fargo terminated the bank accounts of several high-profile individuals in the sex industry without so much as offering an explanation.

This past summer, Visa suspended payments for ads on Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek after the credit card giant was named in a lawsuit filed by a woman who says a sex tape that was filmed without her consent when she was 13 years old was posted on the site.

Mastercard has also cut ties with Pornhub.

Instagram, Meta Platforms Inc.’s photo-sharing social media platform, last week removed Pornhub’s account, which by and large adhered to the site’s rules and did not feature any nudity or explicit sexual content. No explanation was given by Instagram.

Before it was shut down, Pornhub’s Instagram account amassed some 13.1 million followers.