Will OnlyFans Abandon The Base That Built It?
OnlyFans is the site best known for models either showing everything or giving teases of showing everything. It's a Twitter-like place where people go to post cute selfies and videos (and more explicit stuff in DMs) except you need to fork over money & subscribe. It's all the best parts of Twitter mixed with going out to eat when you had food at home. However, recently it seems it's becoming more and more mainstream. First, Belle Delphine of Gamer Girl Bathwater fame had an OnlyFans, then Bella Thorne (which … was a whole thing). Next _____ and _____. Who's next, _____? Fill those blanks in with famous actors/musicians/sports mascots you know because it seems like everyone is hopping to OnlyFans.
And OnlyFans is responding; they've started attempting to get their company valued and are looking for investors to "help it become more of a mainstream media platform." Basically, OnlyFans is doing what tons of internet companies do -- build themselves on the back of porn before getting successful enough to screw sex workers over. OnlyFans wouldn't be the first to do it and it seems like, as they transition from PornHub to Disney+, the first thing they'll do is throw sex workers under the bus.
But some argue it's not just an effort to capitalize on sex workers before shunting them to the side (despite that having been true of Craigslist, Tumblr, Nintendo, Times Square, churches as a concept, and half of politicians). Instead, some argue that OnlyFans is worried about SESTA/FOSTA, the “We need to pretend we care about sex trafficking victims in order to yell at people that choose sex work” bill. The argument is that with OnlyFans being, well, only for one thing, then if they wanted to truly crack down hard, then OnlyFans could be shut down entirely. However, if it were a more diverse site, like say Twitter or Reddit, then it could host porn and protect itself with the more mainstream interests. Kinda like how Patreon is a bastion of sex work, but because all of your favorite washed-up comics and actors peddle their podcasts there it's not seen as a perv site -- it's considered vanilla despite hosting content that is anything but.
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It's still up in the air which it'll be at this time. One day it may go the way of Tumblr and cut all adult content, but then again, it might go the way of Reddit and become exclusively for conspiracy theories and porn. Yes, those are the only two futures for OnlyFans, aside from shutting down.
Top Image: Mehaniq/Shutterstock
