An online platform known for porn is about to cut off an income stream for thousands of sex workers struggling amidst COVID-19, what do they do next?
Advocates for workers in the sex industry say the decision by Only Fans made late last week to ban sexually explicit content will do more harm than good.
OnlyFans, an online subscription-based platform synonymous with porn, announced a ban on sexually explicit material from October 1st to “protect the long-term sustainability of the business” a move driven by a push from banks and credit card companies to remove X rated content from the site.
While OnlyFans has been around since 2016, it experienced a surge in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 130 million people use the service worldwide. It has paid out more than $5 billion to its content creators over the past five years. Part of that surge was a dramatic uptake in sex workers using the platform to sell content when in-person services became non-viable.
OnlyFans announcement means that income stream for sex workers is about to run dry.
Jules Kim, CEO of Scarlet Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers Association said the decision was “baffling” particularly for sex workers in parts of Australia and New Zealand living under strict stay at home orders amid a new COVID-19 outbreak.
“It is incredibly disappointing, and a rather baffling decision given that adult content and sex workers have built OnlyFans,” she told the ABC.
“I think it’s particularly problematic at this time when a lot of the country (Australia) is in lockdown and many sex workers have actually pivoted to online work in order to be able to adapt their services in response to the restrictions.”
Kim is concerned the move will drive sexually explicit content creators “underground.”
“I think we always know that whenever you have a policy of banning something, or restricting something, that it actually just pushes the practice underground and creates greater risk.”
The impact of the decision will be felt by LGBT content creators and those that create content for an LGBT audience.
“OnlyFans banning sex is the tired pattern of social media platforms using sex and queer content to build their user base and make billions, then bailing when it takes too much thought, effort and courage to support us,” LGBT activist Leo Herrera said.
While OnlyFans was the most well-known platform of its kind, others offer a similar model and some creators have already begun migrating to other sites hoping to protect their income, although many concede there may still be a financial hit.
“OnlyFans was acting as a means for me to give my followers the content that they want to them with a paywall, but they don’t want to do that anymore so one of my backup accounts is going to take its place,” Alec Nysten told the ABC.
“Now … my foolproof system has to be a bit different. I have to put all of my followers over and stuff” Nysten said.
“I’m hoping that I hit a little lane that is still OK.”
