OnlyFans Changes Course, Will Allow Adult Content After All

Well, that was fast.

Last week, OnlyFans made waves when it announced that it would be banning adult content. The news made many decry the end of the platform, which has brought in billions from a user-base who know it primarily as a space for homemade pornography, and caused adult content creators to flood competitor sites. Some of those sites saw their servers go offline under the weight of the traffic. Now, OnlyFans has changed course.

"Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard," the platform tweeted. "We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change. OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to proved a home for all creators.

"An official communication to creators will be emailed shortly."

After a long contentious relationship with adult content creators, OnlyFans that it would not allow "sexually explicit" material due to requirements by banks and credit card processors. Companies like Mastercard had recently updated their guidelines for sites that hosted user generated adult content and those new regulations were being applied to OnlyFans. The site founder and CEO, Tim Stokely, also pointed to banks like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, and the U.K.'s Metro Bank who were interfering with payouts. On Friday, in an email to creators OnlyFans issued a new Acceptable Use Policy that banned any content that depicted sex acts or stimulated sex acts, including masturbation. Afterwards, the company tweeted that the platform "would not be what it is today without [sex workers.]"

"We are working around the clock to come up with solutions," they wrote.

But, as they worked on a workaround their competitors mobilized. Sites like Fansly, JustForFans, and 4MyFans saw spikes in traffic and began aggressively hiring and expanding as demand rose. JustForFans announced that it had lowered its take of profits from 30% to 20% after creator pressure, and that it had switched to faster servers in order to keep up with demand. Fansly announced that it had multiplied its support and compliance team by 10 due to the expanded business.

Others have also announced new sites. Rapper Tyga, who was an OnlyFans creator, deleted his account from the platform and announced his own site named Myystar. Similarly, reality star Jozea Flores announced the launch of Wonderland, his competitor platform.

Whether or not creators will stick with OnlyFans given what happened remains to be seen but it is likely. The site is trusted by most consumers, and consistently allows performers to amass the largest followings of any fan site platform. The site will likely maintain its recently launched OFTV app, as a non-pornographic space given Apple Store and Google Play store regulations.

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