OnlyFans accused of blacklisting performers on rival sites
OnlyFans has come under fire for accusations that it blacklists social media accounts of adult performers who work for rival platforms.
Legal documents claim that the UK website best-known for posting porn videos told an unidentified social media firm to disable performers’ accounts by putting their content on a terrorism database.
BBC News learned that competing adult website FanCentro has lodged legal action in the US against OnlyFans’ owner Leonid Radvinsky, as well as OnlyFans’ payment firm, Fenix Internet.
The claim was submitted to the Florida court in November and argued that performers promoting competitors were placed on the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT).
This subsequently led to some social media posts and accounts being removed, limiting the visibility and traffic to FanCentro as a result, especially on Instagram, according to the filing.
GIFCT aims at limiting the spread of terrorism and works with 18 members – including Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat – to moderate threatening content.
According to the BBC, the legal action also suggested that one or more employees – including potentially a senior member of staff – may have been bribed to facilitate the scheme by OnlyFans representatives.
A spokesperson for OnlyFans has said the claims have “no merit”, and said they could add no further comment when approached by Morning Wire
OnlyFans has become increasingly popular in recent years, and performers generally use other social media sites, like Instagram or Snapchat, to promote their videos and photos. It has an estimated 50 million registered users and more than one million content creators.