OnlyFans made the right decision to reverse its plan to ban sexually explicit videos

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Rachel Mirakova | The Ticker

Philip Watson

Since the meteoric website OnlyFans was launched in 2016, the media landscape has not been the same. OnlyFans reached the height of its popularity due to the platform it gave sex workers to reliably post their content on a well-known site without fear.

It is safe to say these content creators have earned for Only Fans the same way that Only Fans has earned for them— one cannot exist without the other. Thus, the reversal of the ban on sexually explicit videos was not only the smart move, but it was also the only move.

“The change in policy, we had no choice — the short answer is banks,” Only Fans CEO Tim Stokely said, as reported by The Verge, regarding its initial plan to ban sexually explicit videos starting October. Stokely said that investors would not indulge in the website unless they became more marketable.

The decision to reverse the ban came after the company secured investments from sources that didn’t deem the site to cause “reputational harm.

This is a breath of fresh air that may have come too late, however, as Newsweek reported many creators have realized that OnlyFans will drop them if their content didn’t coincide with mainstream appeal. The decision to ban this content was made without creators in mind, and the damage to their subscribers has already been done.

Only Fans was hoisted upon the backs of the sex workers who have made the platform mainstream and to make such a decision without warning is reprehensible to their livelihoods.

Imagine going to work one day and the manager says without warning, “Find somewhere else.” It is not only a slap in the face; it’s a stab in the back.

“Every single dime that company has made has revolved around porn whether they want to admit it or not … I think it’s hilarious now watching them try to pick up the pieces from a vase they threw at the wall,” Skylar Shark, an OnlyFans content creator, said to Buzzfeed.

A platform that is willing to hurt the creators who kept it alive, without warning is not entirely the safest workplace. Creating content is hard enough and finding a platform to reliably post sextype work is a herculean task.

If  creators constantly must consider whether they will be allowed to post or not, they should just find somewhere that will accept them permanently and not cause damage to their respective brands.

With such a heavy emphasis on adult content, banning it from Only Fans would be like removing cooking from the Food Network.