OnlyFans boss breaks silence on porn ban saying ‘we had no choice’

The founder of OnlyFans has finally spoken out about the platform’s planned ban on “sexually explicit” content.

The social network, which is popular among sex workers, recently announced that strict new rules would come into force in October, sending shockwaves across the internet and prompting a mass exodus to alternative sites.

Initially the London-based company said the move was the result of pressure from financial partners, leading people to point the finger at payment processors Mastercard and Visa.

But in an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday, chief executive Tim Stokely revealed that it was, in fact, banks that were behind the imminent restrictions.

He offered up three big names – the Metro Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of New York Mellon – as being to blame for the upcoming porn ban, suggesting they were driven by concerns about “reputational risk”.

“The change in policy, we had no choice — the short answer is banks,” Stokely told the paper.

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

The site’s CEO claimed Metro Bank closed OnlyFans’ corporate account on short notice in 2019, and accused Bank of New York Mellon of “making it difficult to pay our creators”, having “flagged and rejected” every wire associated with the firm.

“JPMorgan Chase is particularly aggressive in closing accounts of sex workers or… any business that supports sex workers,” he continued.

Indy100 contacted Metro Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of New York Mellon about Stokely’s allegations – they all declined to comment.

Rival site Fansly has been flooded with new applications Fansly

Following the announcement last week, countless sex workers announced their intention to find a new platform, with many predicting OnlyFans to shut down as a result.

A 24-year-old, who uses the name Yasmina Khan, currently makes about £22,000 per month via OnlyFans.

She told the Press Association (PA) that she hopes her 2,000-plus subscribers will follow and jump ship to a new site.

“I’m just going to have to go to another platform but then, are other platforms safe as well?,” she said. “I’m a little bit anxious about it but I think everyone is very anxious right now.”

Obscenity lawyer Myles Jackman said he believes OnlyFans could decline like Tumblr, which saw numbers drop after it decided to ban pornographic images in December 2018.

“It’s difficult to see that OnlyFans will survive purely as an influencer site,” he explained to PA.

“It’s possible but considering the entire content base has been pornography and now it’s not going to be anymore.”

The changes come in the wake of a BBC investigation, which claimed that content moderators for the platform are told to give multiple warnings to accounts that post illegal content before the site decides to close them, and that staff are asked to be more lenient towards successful accounts on the service.

The investigation also claims to have seen a number of examples of banned content on the site and says it was told by moderators that prostitution services have been found advertising on the platform.

OnlyFans creators can earn thousands of pounds per month Shutterstock/Postmodern Studio

Still, Stokely said he would “absolutely” allow pornographic content to return to the site if banks changed their approach.

“This decision was made to safeguard their funds and subscriptions from increasingly unfair actions by banks and media companies,” he said.

“We obviously do not want to lose our most loyal creators.”