Wait…OnlyFans is Banning Adult Content Now?

Today, the adult site OnlyFans.com decided it was smart to completely change their entire deal by disallowing sexually explicit content, except the kind “approved” by the site itself, starting in October. Which leaves folks using the site a month to find a new way to pay the bills. 

All this left people wondering…huh??

It’s certainly not the first time folks who make their living from sex work have been radically deplatformed on a huge scale. This basically happened with Tumblr a few years ago, with one notable distinction being that Tumblr was not designed as a place where folks could accept payment for an exchange of goods in an extremely straightforward, transactional way. And, oh yeah, it didn’t happen during a pandemic when millions of sex workers are already struggling to survive.

So yeah, it’s a huge bummer, but more than that, it’s completely irresponsible of OnlyFans to hit the sex work community—largely composed of queer and trans folk—with such a sudden barrier to accessing funds.

Clearly the Internet is already going off about this, as it should. This is huge blow to the queer community.

Let’s start by pointing out that sex workers have “real jobs,” and they work very hard at those real jobs. So let’s stop with the condescension and trash talk, ok?

Anyone doing the “haha time to get a job” thing in light of the OnlyFans news is trash. SEX WORK IS WORK. PERIOD. There is a huge demand for it, and those that provide it have a SPECIAL SKILL- and they work fucking hard.

— Jonnie Reinhart (@JonnieReinhart) August 19, 2021

Sex workers deserve respect and care, and this is obviously a slap in the face to everyone who’s counted on OnlyFans to get them through the pandemic:

Sex work is work and sex workers deserve platforms and outlets to run their businesses.

— George M Johnson (@IamGMJohnson) August 19, 2021

We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore:

Rest in shit you fucking cowardshttps://t.co/3GMzeHyInf

— Carta Monir (@CartaMonir) August 19, 2021

THAT PART.

OnlyFans would be nothing without the sex workers who built the platform. Instead of catering to banks and investors, OF should cater to its content creators. https://t.co/68MFLI86Rj

— zellie (@zellieimani) August 19, 2021

Onlyfans catered their platform almost exclusively to sex workers, built their wealth and popularity off the backs of sex workers, and within only a year ditched the creators who made their empire so they can cater to banks. Even if you don’t use the site you should be pissed.

— Savvy☭ (@sleepisocialist) August 19, 2021

What’s this all really about? Money and archaic laws, obviously.

more sesta/fosta and payment-processing puritanism 🙁 https://t.co/hMC1uEhEXg

— recursive (@recursive) August 19, 2021

And it’s just so counterintuitive to begin with:

Only fans banning sex content is like KFC not selling chicken no more

— kira ~ (@Sadcrib) August 19, 2021

There’s also the fact that when you target sex workers as a whole, it disproportionately affects trans communities of color:

We can all thank TERFS who know that many trans women depend on sex work and thus have zeroed in on killing platforms that enable sex workers to make money. They want to make it impossible for trans women to live. And money matters.

— Saeed Jones (@theferocity) August 19, 2021

Let’s not forget, too, that this doesn’t just hurt peoples’ livelihoods. It hurts communities:

This is going to be devastating for many small fetish communities that have congregated around a few content creators that speak to their particular kink.

Hopefully the creators will be able to find a new platform but even if they do it won’t be easy to replicate what OF had.

— Wedgie Freak (@WedgieFreak) August 19, 2021

All in all, this whole mess feels VERY familiar:

do y’all remember when yahoo bought tumblr in 2013 for $1.1 billion, banned porn, and then sold it in 2019 for less than $3 million

just thinking about that idk

— matt (@mattxiv) August 19, 2021

Too familiar:

Imagine being an OnlyFans exec, and watching Tumblr fumble the bag the way they did and then, a few years later, deciding to do exactly what Tumblr did. Y’all are some goofy, sex worker-hating bamas. I wish you nothing but limp, dry, dusty loins.

— Saeed Jones (@theferocity) August 19, 2021

Here’s to your spectacular downfall, OF!

I give porn-free OnlyFans one year before they’re bought for $1 by a company that sells ceiling fans

— Matt Baume (@MattBaume) August 19, 2021

does onlyfans really think they will survive this? because I’m looking directly at tumblr….

sorry but nobody is going on onlyfans to watch cat videos. well………..u know what i mean kdjstjjsdjsjdjsmdjjsdjsjdjsmdjsjdjsjdjsjdjdnfndn

— ΛDRIΛN (@AdrianXpression) August 19, 2021

Good luck OnlyFans. Actually, no. Zero luck, OnlyFans. This is what happens when you turn your back on the community that raised you up.