(Reuters) -OnlyFans, an online subscription platform known for adult content, on Wednesday scrapped its new policy that would have prohibited users from posting any material containing “sexually explicit conduct.”
“We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change,” OnlyFans tweeted on Wednesday https://bit.ly/3gsH62Q.
Earlier in the week, the London-based company said https://www.reuters.com/technology/onlyfans-ban-content-showing-sexually-explicit-conduct-2021-08-19 the prohibition policy was in compliance with the requests of its banking partners and payment providers.
OnlyFans did not immediately respond to questions for more detail about the “secured assurances.”
In an interview with the Financial Times, OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely blamed “unfair” treatment by banks that made it difficult for the company to pay creators.
“An official communication to creators will be emailed shortly,” OnlyFans said in a separate tweet. The company was not immediately available for comment.
The platform, which was founded in 2016 and has boomed in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, says it has 130 million users.
The website carved out a niche in the growing creator economy, an industry of online content creators who are earning money directly from fans through social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram.
Sex workers turned to OnlyFans to sell content and more safely earn money online during the pandemic.
(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Jonathan Oatis)