OnlyFans Reveals Why It Banned Sexually Explicit Content

OnlyFans sparked major controversy last week, after announcing that it would begin banning pornographic content beginning in October. Now, the company’s CEO, Tim Stokely, has revealed exactly why OnlyFans is cracking down on sexually explicit pictures and videos. In a new interview with the Financial Times, Stokely placed the blame on financial institutions that do not want their business connected to sex work. “The change in policy, we had no choice — the short answer is banks,” Stokely said.

The CEO went on to explain that banking corporations such as JP Morgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon and the U.K.’s Metro Bank “cite reputational risk and refuse our business.” Stokely added, “We pay over 1 million creators over $300 million every month, and making sure that these funds get to creators involves using the banking sector.” The problem, he says, is that the banks refuse to process transactions related to sex work, which OnlyFans has come to be known for, then Stokely’s company has a difficult time paying the content creators.

On Thursday, the content creation site revealed that it will ban pornographic content beginning in October, but will still allow nude images that are not sexually explicit. The site has been popular with sex workers, who have used it to safely sell content to subscribers. “In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform, and continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans, we must evolve our content guidelines,” OnlyFans said in a statement published by Bloomberg.

“This decision was made to safeguard [creators’] funds and subscriptions from increasingly unfair actions by banks and media companies,” Stokely told the Financial Times. “We obviously do not want to lose our most loyal creators.” The CEO went on to state that OnlyFans is “fully compliant” with new rules from Mastercard, meaning that recent change was not a factor in the choice to ban sexually explicit content.

Finally, Stokely also refuted allegations and reports that OnlyFans was marred by an “illegal content incident,” revolving around underage individuals using OnlyFans to sell nude and pornographic content. In response to the claims, OnlyFans previously said that it intentionally exceeds “all relevant global safety standards and regulations” in keeping safe watch over the content on its platform, per Variety.