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OnlyFans Reverses Plan To Ban Sexually Explicit Content

OnlyFans has backtracked on its ban and decided to delay content creation’s policy changes after facing backlash from online users.

Last week, the subscription platform announced that it planned to block photos and videos deemed “sexually explicit” from October.

However, on Wednesday, it said it had “suspended the planned 1 October policy change.” Whether the delay will be permanent has yet to be confirmed.

OnlyFans wrote on Twitter that it would continue to provide “a home” for all content creators.

“Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard,” the company said.

It stated that it had obtained the necessary assurances to support its diverse user community and called off the changes.

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

In an email sent to its creators, the content subscription service said the proposed changes for the next month were no longer necessary.

OnlyFans justified its decision to suspend the recently-announced policy, arguing that banking partners’ assurances could support “all genres of creators.”

Besides, it promised to do everything possible to provide a safe and reliable platform for both creators and fans.

A London-based OnlyFans creator supported the company’s announcement but said that people who had found new platforms to share their content might not return.

Suspending changes come as good news in the short term for sex workers reliant on the service.

However, the anxiety linked to the first announcement might have forced many models to continue moving to other platforms, the creator added.

OnlyFans keeps 20% of all payments made to its content creators. In May 2020, during the lockdown, the company saw its number of new creators rise to 75%.

The subscription service first explained that blocking adult content was due to investor wariness.

But founder Tim Stokely suggested that the reason behind last week’s announcement was linked to banks penalizing the company for supporting sex workers.

“JPMorgan Chase is particularly aggressive in closing accounts of sex workers or… any business that supports sex workers,” Stokely told the Financial Times on Tuesday.

However, a JPMorgan spokesperson denied his comments, saying it had “no such policy.”

An investigation launched in June found that children had used false IDs to create accounts on the site.

Since then, OnlyFans has been under pressure to control accounts that violate use policies, including those belonging to underage users.