OnlyFans CEO Tim Stokely on Tuesday said the subscription platform’s recent ban on porn is due to “unfair” treatment from banks.
Stokely, in an interview with Financial Times, said OnlyFans had “no choice” other than banning explicit sexual content, because its banking partners would routinely point to “reputation risk and refuse our business.”
In light of that, Stokely told the paper, “We had no choice [but to ban porn] — the short answer is banks.”
Stokely, who founded OnlyFans in 2016, told FT that JPMorgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon and Metro Bank were a few of the banks that have pushed back against porn on the platform. JPMorgan Chase, Stokely said, was “particularly aggressive in closing accounts of sex workers or… any business that supports sex workers.”
He added that he would “absolutely” allow explicit content to return if he could secure the support of banks. “This decision was made to safeguard their funds and subscriptions from increasingly unfair actions by banks and media companies,” he said. “We obviously do not want to lose our most loyal creators.”
The interview comes after OnlyFans last week said it would no longer allow “sexually explicit” content starting Oct. 1. The London-based company said the decision was made to comply with the requests of its banking and lending partners.
The decision was a major one, considering OnlyFans — now with more than 130 million users and 2 million creators — built its company largely on creators posting adult content. Celebrities like Cardi B, Amber Rose and Bella Thorne, among others, have also joined OnlyFans in recent years.
