NUM Statement on OnlyFans Content Restrictions

NUM Statement on OnlyFans Content Restrictions
20 August 2021

The news that OnlyFans will ban sexual content from its platform from 1st October 2021 is the latest development in the trend of sex workers being excluded from online platforms and financial services.

There are many sex workers who depend on OnlyFans as a platform for the majority of their income. There are others who use OnlyFans as a supplement to income from other sex work, or more mainstream jobs. The Covid-19 pandemic has only increased the number of those turning to OnlyFans and other online platforms to ensure that they earn enough money to survive and support themselves and their families. Sex workers who had been able to transition to online work may now face financial pressure to return to in-person forms of sex work, increasing the risks they take and jeopardising their safety. Sex work has gone from being in a highly visible position to being once again pushed back into hidden margins.

OnlyFans have noted in their statement that this decision is the result of pressure from payment providers. The decision is in line with MasterCard’s changes to providing services to adult content websites. While sex workers have faced financial discrimination as the result of stigma for much longer, many attribute this increasing restriction to FOSTA/SESTA and recent campaigning by Exodus Cry and NCOSE to abolish not just online pornography platforms, but sex work entirely.

This move by OnlyFans is a high-profile example of much broader discrimination against sex workers. We cannot view this discrimination against sex workers in isolation; it exists towards all sex workers, regardless of whether they work online or in person. It is a symptom of much broader, wide-reaching stigma. This stigma is dangerous, and will make all sex workers less safe.

At NUM, we are currently conducting research into sex workers’ experiences of discrimination by financial services. If this is something you feel that you have experienced, please consider taking part in our short survey. You can find out more information on this by clicking here.

Update 30th September 2021:

OnlyFans have since reversed their decision, and sexual content will, for the time being, remain permitted on their site. While we are pleased to see the voices and needs of sex workers listened to in this instance, we cannot be certain how long this security will remain. The stigma faced by all sex workers that is perpetrated by financial institutions must be eliminated to ensure sex workers have access to safer working and living conditions.

Further reading on the ban on adult content:

Further reading on the decision reversal: