OnlyFans confirmed new rule changes to The Verge today that could impact how much money creators make on the platform, as well as how quickly they get paid. The new rules include a $100 cap on paid private messages, compared to $200 before, and a $50 cap on pay-per-view posts for creators who don’t charge a subscription, compared to $200 previously.
There’s also a new maximum tip price of $100 for the first four months a user is active on the site. After that point, it increases to $200, which was the standard for all users up until this point. OnlyFans is also lengthening the pending payout period from seven to 21 days for creators in 14 countries, including India, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Venezuela.
OnlyFans says the changes reflect an “evolving process” that’s meant to “ensure payment protection for both content creators and users.”
The changes come only a couple weeks after actress Bella Thorne joined the service and made $1 million in subscription money in just a day. During her week on the platform, she also supposedly charged $200 for a pay-per-view post that didn’t deliver on promised nudity, fueling rumors that the platform made its changes because people wanted refunds after spending a significant amount of money for the content. OnlyFans creators spoke out about the changes and blamed Thorne, saying this would impact how they make money. For its part, OnlyFans says these rumors are unsubstantiated.
“We can confirm that any changes to transaction limits are not based on any one user,” an OnlyFans spokesperson said in a comment to The Verge last week.
Still, Thorne apologized on Twitter earlier this week for joining the service and apparently only doing so for film research purposes — not because she needs to make a livelihood.
“I wanted to bring attention to the site, the more people on the site the more likely of a chance to normalize the stigmas, and in trying to do this I hurt you,” she tweeted. “I have risked my career a few times to remove the stigma behind sex work, porn, and the natural hatred people spew behind anything sex related. I wrote and directed a porn against the high brows of my peers and managers because I WANTED to help with the stigma behind sex.”
She apologized for joining the platform and potentially hurting people who rely on the service to make money. She also said she was meeting with OnlyFans to learn about the new restrictions.
Sean Baker, who was widely reported to be working on a film with Thorne, distanced himself from the project after the fallout from the rule changes. “I am an ally and have literally devoted my career to tell stories that remove stigma and normalize lifestyles that are under attack,” he wrote. “I would never do anything that could possibly hurt the community.”
Since its launch in 2016, OnlyFans has become synonymous with sex work and nudity and grew in popularity during the pandemic as celebrities, like Cardi B, joined the service. Beyoncé shouted OnlyFans out during a song with Megan Thee Stallion, and Instagram influencers, like Caroline Calloway, also joined the platform to sell nudes. Sex workers who found a paying audience on the platform are now wary of its possible transition to less explicit creators, which could push it to ostracize and undervalue sex workers’ contributions and reliance on the site.
Correction September 2nd, 5:29PM ET: The new tip limit applies to OnlyFans users, not creators. OnlyFans originally provided the wrong information, saying it applied to creators. We have updated the article to reflect this information.
- OnlyFans changed its payment policy today, limiting the amount creators can charge for exclusive content to $50 and the amount creators can be tipped to $100.
- Some creators, including sex workers, wrote online that they believe the new limitations are related to Bella Thorne joining the site last week.
- Thorne, 22, made $2 million in less than a week after joining OnlyFans and then advertised exclusive content for an additional $200.
- OnlyFans told Insider there is no connection between Thorne joining the site and the policy changes.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
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Days after Bella Thorne earned a record $1 million in a day from posting pay-per-view photos on OnlyFans, the erotic content site has put a limit on how much people can charge and tip for content.
The platform, which has become a lifeline for sex workers and strippers unable to do in-person work during the pandemic, has garnered cult status and celebrity users this year.
On Tuesday, OnlyFans confirmed that 22-year-old Thorne, who joined the site August 19, had earned $2 million in one week from people paying to see her photos, half of which was earned in one day.
Today, creators worldwide were informed that their fans could no longer give limitless tips. The site also imposed a limit on how much people can charge for exclusive content: now $50 when before there was no limit.
Many OnlyFans creators, including sex workers, took to Twitter to voice their concerns with the platform's new payment policies. Many asked whether Thorne's controversial addition to the site had anything to do with the changes, but OnlyFans told Insider there is no connection.
—Rebecca Madison 🇨🇦 (@RebeccaMadison_) August 28, 2020
How OnlyFans payment works
On OnlyFans, users subscribe to creators for a fee they pay each month that gets them access to photos, videos, and live-streams from the creator.
In addition, creators can sell "exclusive" content to subscribers for an additional fee, called pay per view (PPV). Prior to the new limitations, there were no limits on how much a creator could charge for PPV.
Controversy over Bella Thorne's $200 photo on OnlyFans
When Bella Thorne joined the platform, she advertised to sell users a pay per view exclusive photo for $200.
About 50,000 users subscribed for $16.99 to her OnlyFans page and paid the additional PPV fee.
Some users tweeted that they were disappointed to find that the PPV photo was not, in fact, a nude, which is unusual for the erotic content site. Thorne later clarified there would be no nudity on her page.
—Kira Noir Inc. (@thekiranoir) August 28, 2020
—💋 Princess Hadley 💋 (@misshadleykat) August 28, 2020
The change was announced to creators this morning.
OnlyFans released a statement to Insider confirming the changes. The firm said it had nothing to do with Thorne.
"Transaction limits are set to help prevent overspending and to allow our users to continue to use the site safely," the statement read. "We value all of the feedback received since this change was implemented and we will continue to review these limits. Our objective remains to provide the best platform possible for the OnlyFans community. We can confirm that any changes to transaction limits are not based on any one user."
Sex workers built OnlyFans, but say the new limitations could harm the community
While OnlyFans isn't just a platform for adult content, it became popularized as a modern hub for sex workers, hustling to earn money through a pandemic and a recession.
The pandemic has made it near-impossible for many sex workers to meet clients in person, making OnlyFans one of the safest forms of income.
Bella, a 26-year-old OnlyFans creator and full-service sex worker who makes an average of $7,000 a month on the site, told Insider she's concerned the new limitations on OnlyFans are just the beginning of the platform's push to remove sex workers from it.
"The entire sex work community online is holding their breath to see if OnlyFans is going to continue to make that pivot towards family-friendly content," Bella said. "Bella Thorne already had so much money and she did not do any sort of research to see what her actions would do to affect the survival of sex workers."
Bella Thorne did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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