OnlyFans says it will no longer ban porn after backlash

The reversal comes just days after OnlyFans announced it would bar creators from posting “content that contains sexually explicit conduct,” sparking an outcry among sex workers who had helped create the company’s success and popularity. OnlyFans said the changes followed requests by “banking partners and payout providers.”

In an interview with the Financial Times that published earlier this week, OnlyFans CEO Tim Stokley blamed banks such as Bank of New York Mellon and JP Morgan, whom he said had blocked OnlyFans’ payments to creators and shut down their accounts. (Those companies declined to comment to CNN Business on Tuesday.)

Some sex workers were in disbelief following the company’s sudden about-face. Just days earlier, OnlyFans had emailed creators with a link to its new acceptable use policy detailing more specifics about the planned sexually explicit conduct ban and informing creators that “existing content that does not meet the standards of the new policy will need to be removed before December 1, 2021.”

“I feel like the right to work has been given back to me even after it was kind of teased to be taken away from me,” said one creator, who goes by the name of Maya Morena and who joined OnlyFans about four years ago. “The feeling is just bizarre.”