San Francisco (AFP)
OnlyFans, a platform known in particular for erotic and pornographic photos and videos published by creators for remuneration, announced Thursday its decision to ban "all sexually explicit content" from October.
"In order to ensure our long-term operation and to continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we need to evolve our regulations," said the UK-based company.
"These changes are necessary to comply with the requests of our financial partners and online payment services."
OnlyFans specifies that creators will still be able to upload nudity if they comply with the new rules of the site.
At this stage, they prohibit the promotion of violence, guns, etc., as well as extreme or criminal sexual content, such as bestiality or rape, but not eroticism or even pornography.
The platform, which has 130 million users, said it would give more details in the coming days and "actively help" its more than 2 million creators.
Its popularity has exploded thanks to health restrictions in 2020, like other services that connect creators and influencers with an audience.
On OnlyFans, "fans" can pay to subscribe to profiles that interest them and thus have access to updated content at different intervals.
They have grossed more than $ 5 billion for creators.
"Content platforms and social networks are constantly creating barriers to prevent sex workers from surviving," lamented a creator of erotic content active on OnlyFans since before the pandemic.
"But we are used to adapting and we will always find ways to do our job successfully, because people want our content and the demand is there, whether society admits it or not," continued the American who prefers to remain anonymous.
OnlyFans recently launched a so-called "suitable for work" channel, where users can watch videos in areas such as music or cooking recipes.
Payment services like PayPal, Visa or Mastercard have been lobbying the pornography site Pornhub for two years, accused of distributing child pornography and rape videos.
© 2021 AFP