Last week, OnlyFans announced that it would ban sexually explicit content, effective Oct. 1. After creators and the public reacted with anger and confusion, given that sex workers largely helped build the app to be worth over $1 billion, the company reversed the plan.
“Thank you to everyone for making your voices heard,” the company tweeted on Wednesday. “We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change.
“OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators,” the tweet concluded.
This gaffe highlights how dismissive social media companies can be to the creators on their platforms, and how pearl-clutching corporate America still is about sex and sex work.
According to initial reports, OnlyFans had been struggling to find investors because of how popular sex and nudity are on its platform.
“These changes are to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payout providers,” the company said last week.
The bureaucratic language made it clear. The company prioritized growing fiscally and did not consider the damage the move would have to its creators, monetarily and emotionally. It didn’t care, or consider, that many of its top-earning sex workers would probably flee the platform, jeopardizing the company’s reputation and, ironically, its financial future. OnlyFans also didn’t apologize for putting its creators through this stress.
“OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators” is a feeble attempt at taking accountability for how the company quickly dissolved trust between influencers, paying community members, and company executives.
“We’re sorry we didn’t consider the effect it would have on people who helped build value in our company, and we want to set an industry standard for safe and inclusive sex work online” would have been a sincere, decent response, but, hey, I’m no PR expert.
The corporate jargon was ultimately revealing. I interpreted OnlyFans’ actions and statements to mean that creators are great when we can use them to prove to investors that we’re solid as a company, but when it comes to understanding and protecting their careers and livelihoods, well, that’s on them to sort out.
I imagine sex workers on OnlyFans are ultimately pleased that the company walked back its decision, but I can also imagine how destabilizing it must now be to be running their accounts, unsure of when OnlyFans may suddenly pull the plug on their careers and incomes.
OnlyFans is in a bind. The company needs to raise a lot of capital to stay competitive and grow, but in that process, it has sidelined the people who helped get it a seat at the table with investors. Social media companies and creators are dependent on each other, and these companies must realize how much power they have over people’s lives.
I’m no economist, either, but here’s my advice for OnlyFans: If you slowly nurture the relationship you have with your creators, your company will grow more sustainably. It might be slower, the cash might have to come later, but it won’t cause this level of disruptive chaos that then tarnishes the trust of the community you built.
I am ready for TaylorTok
Source Article from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tanyachen/the-onlyfans-sex-ban-and-taylor-swift-tiktok
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