OnlyFans Reverses Porn Ban in All-Too Rare Victory for Sex Workers

The company will continue to allow sexually explicit content on its site.
Onlyfans logo on an iphone.
SOPA Images/Getty Images

 

Less than a week after announcing plans to limit explicit content, subscription site OnlyFans has rolled back its proposed policy changes. It had come under fire from creators and advocates who claimed that the ban was an outright attack on sex workers’ livelihoods, many of whom had helped build the platform.

In a Wednesday tweet, the company announced it had “secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community,” presumably thanks to policy changes from banks which had previously been unsupportive of the company’s hosting of sex worker content. With these assurances in place, OnlyFans said it had, therefore, suspended the planned policy change.

“OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators,” the company wrote.

X content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

The policy change, initially announced August 19, would have banned all sexually explicit content, including depictions of sexual intercourse, masturbation, or “extreme or offensive” exhibition of genitals. The new rules were set to go into effect in October.

The change reportedly came as the result of disputes between OnlyFans and its banking partners, some of which had refused to pay content creators in the past over “reputational risk.” These banks, which included J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, and Metro Bank had barred the company from making wire transfers, making it more difficult to compensate sex workers who used the platform to sell their content.

If implemented, the ban would have amounted to a substantial loss of money for creators. The U.K.-based company, first launched in 2016, claims to have over 130 million registered users and over 2 million content creators, who reportedly earn over $300 million each month.

But the changes are now “no longer required,” as an OnlyFans spokesperson told the entertainment news publication Variety on Wednesday. A representative for the company claimed that its financial partners had assured them that OnlyFans can continue to “support all genres of creators,” although it did not state what specifically had changed in recent days.

Advocates and sex workers had heavily criticized the ban when it was announced, with some announcing plans to shift their content to other sites with more lenient policies. In the face of the backlash, the company backtracked, sending mixed messages to creators. Some were told that nothing would change.

Other sex workers and advocates pointed out that the loss of income would send many previously online-only sex workers to in-person sex work, which is far more dangerous, particularly for LGBTQ+ sex workers and sex workers of color.

“Not having the online outlet is going to hinder and harm a lot of people,” LaLa Holston-Zannell, trans justice campaign manager for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told the Associated Press. “Online is much safer, particularly for trans and gender nonconforming folks.”

Onlyfans logo on an iphone sitting on an open laptop
Formerly known as Morality in Media, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation was a key player in lobbying to restrict porn on the site.

Critics also cited the role of conservative Christian groups who claimed to be fighting child pornography and sex trafficking in forcing OnlyFans’ hand.

One such organization, the far-right National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) has been lobbying to crack down on OnlyFans for years. Just weeks before the ban’s announcement, 102 members of congress sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) citing NCOSE data and urging the DOJ to investigate the platform. NCOSE has accused OnlyFans of harboring child pornography.

The right-wing vendetta against sex workers is also fueled to anti-LGBTQ+ animus. The NCOSE, which was previously known as Morality in Media (MiM), once claimed that same-sex unions cause mass murder and called for a boycott of Disney in the 90s for extending partner benefits to LGBTQ+ employees.

While many are celebrating the OnlyFans policy reversal, it represents a rare win for sex workers in a political climate that has become increasingly hostile towards their rights. This animosity has intensified in recent years, particularly since the passage of the controversial FOSTA-SESTA bills in 2018 shut down online personals websites, like Backpage, commonly used by sex workers.

Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for them.'s weekly newsletter here.