OnlyFans to ban sexually explicit content amid abuse allegations

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Erotic videos have made the UK OnlyFans platform grow rapidly during the pandemic, from 20 million users to 130 million today. Pornstars and sex workers have found it a direct connection to clients all over the world. But it was also seized by actors, actresses, musicians, fitness teachers and others, who saw an opportunity to resolve the pandemic containment crisis by offering services from the virtual world.

However, OnlyFans’ strategy has been to relax controls on illegal content, which was denounced in May by the BBC in London. Specifically, he was aware of internal documents showing how content moderators receive several warnings to send before closing accounts that post illegal content. Illegal content is linked to human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children.

On Thursday, the platform announced that from October it will ban the publication of sexually explicit content, but not nude images if they comply with the requirements that it has not yet published.

“To ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform and continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we need to evolve our content guidelines,” the platform said, announcing the checks.

OnlyFans was created in 2016 by Tim Stokely, who still runs it. It is owned by Ukrainian-American Leonid Radvinsky.

In its Friday news, the BBC recalls that “101 members of the United States Congress have signed a letter asking the United States Department of Justice to investigate the content of OnlyFans, focusing mainly on the sexual exploitation of children.”

The BBC, backed by child protection experts, said the platform “maintains a certain ‘tolerance’ for accounts that post illegal content.” He further notes that the moderates consulted “have found advertisements for prostitution services, bestiality and material which appears to be incest”. They even revealed that they discovered more than 2,000 illegal photos and videos in one day.

But that’s not all. British media cited as one example the video of a man “paying homeless people to have sex with him on camera”.

Following the complaint about the flexibility of controls, OnlyFans responded that “we do not tolerate any violation of our terms of service and will take immediate action to maintain the safety of our users”.

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