OnlyFans Suspends Decision To Ban Porn Content

British technology platform OnlyFans has confirmed it is reversing course on plans to ban “sexually explicit” content.

Last week the platform announced that from 1 October it would no longer allow “sexually explicit” content (although some nudity would be allowed).

The platform said the decision was taken to comply with requests from its banking and payment providers.

But now the platform has confirmed it is “suspending” its decision, after it “secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community.”

Ban suspension

The platform confirmed the news in a tweet.

“Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard,” it said. “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 provide a home for all creators,” it said.

The OnlyFans content subscription service was founded in 2016 and is headquartered near Covent Garden in London.

The platform was co-founded by Tim Stokely who is still the chief executive, but the firm is now wholly owned by the porn mogul Leo Radivinsky, who has previously indicated a wish to move to more general-interest content, and not just porn.

It currently has 150 million registered users and 1.5 million content creators, many of whom work within the porn or adult entertainment industry.

The OnlyFans services essentially allows sex workers or other content creators to charge their fans a fee to view their material.

It should be noted that there are other types of content creators on the platform including musicians such as Cardi B, rugby players, photographers, and cooks, but the majority of the content is said to be home made porn related.

Banks blamed

Earlier this week, Tim Stokely, told the Financial Times that the blame for the porn ban was down to the company’s financial backers.

“The change in policy, we had no choice – the short answer is banks,” Stokely told the Financial Times in an interview.

“We pay over one million creators over $300m every month, and making sure that these funds get to creators involves using the banking sector,” he reportedly said.

Stokely singled out one bank in particular, BNY Mellon, as having flagged and rejected transfers, while another bank, UK-based Metro Bank, closed the company’s accounts in 2019.

BNY Mellon and Metro Bank reportedly declined to comment when asked about Stokely’s claims on Tuesday.