Canadian OnlyFans creators dismayed over platform's new payment restrictions

A woman uses her computer keyboard to type while surfing the internet in North Vancouver, B.C. (Photo: The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward)

TORONTO — Sex workers who depend on the content subscription platform OnlyFans to sell photos and videos are fuming after the company introduced new rules that limit how much content creators can earn.

Madison Winter, an OnlyFans performer and sex workers’ advocate from Toronto, says she was dismayed after she tried to sell a video for $200 only to find out the maximum she could charge was $50.

“I spent four to five hours filming and editing that video,” Winter said in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca. “As a business person what do you do? Do you sell your product for 70 per cent less? You’re left with no option.”

OnlyFans has gained worldwide popularity as a platform that allows individuals to earn money from fans who pay a monthly fee to subscribe to their content. Users can also send additional tips and receive pay-per-view messages from performers around the world.

The service is primarily used to buy and sell sexualized content, though the site’s popularity -- and potential to earn millions -- has attracted a variety of different creators from fitness experts and chefs to major celebrities like rapper Cardi B and actress Bella Thorne.

Thorne recently made headlines for making US$2 million in less than a week after joining the service. Her activity on the platform has come under fire for allegedly promoting a $200 pay-per-view message that wasn’t as advertised.

Fans said they were promised a naked photo of Thorne but instead were shown a photo of the actress dressed in lingerie. Multiple users expressed their disappointment on Twitter and started requesting refunds for purchasing content that was wrongly advertised.

Thorne issued an apology in a five-part Twitter thread on Aug. 29 where she claims to have risked her career a few times for trying to remove the stigma behind sex work.

Many users have suggested that Thorne’s behaviour is what sparked the changes to OnlyFans’ payment policies, though the company denies Thorne had anything to do with the new spending restrictions on the site.

Previously content creators could receive up to $200 in tips and charge a maximum of $200 for each pay-per-view (PPV) message. Now, creators can only receive a maximum tip of $100 until they have been active on the site for four months and $50 for each PPV.

Creators in certain countries will also need to wait nearly an entire month before they can deposit their earnings. Until recently, payments were distributed at least once a week.

“Transaction limits are set to help prevent overspending and to allow our users to continue to use the site safely,” a spokesperson for OnlyFans said in a statement. “This is an evolving process that impacts a small percentage of accounts meant to ensure payment protection for both content creators and users.”

The company says it will continue to review and assess the new limits as they receive more feedback.

“Putting a cap size on tips is definitely going to minimize the amount of income that sex workers make on the platform,” says Jelena Vermilion, executive director of the Sex Workers Action Program of Hamilton. “Reducing the options that sex workers have is just going to isolate them further on the internet and in their real lives.”

OnlyFans has become a lifeline for many sex workers who were unable to do in-person work during the pandemic. Vermilion says a double-standard exists between celebrities like Thorne who want to follow the OnlyFans hype and the sex workers who depend on the platform for survival.

“She was co-opting a sex workers platform to further her own [brand] as an actor and public figure while not really paying attention to the stigma that is associated with sex work,” Vermilion says. “When full-service sex workers are outed as being people who sell or trade sexual services to the public, their family or peers, they lose access to many fundamental aspects of their lives.”

At its inception, OnlyFans was praised for giving power back to sex workers and porn performers, but four years after its launch many are wondering if the platform is doing more harm than good.

“Personally, I only use OnlyFans as secondary income,” Dahlia, an OnlyFans content creator from Toronto said about the impact of the new spending limits. “But I can imagine this being the difference between someone eating or paying their light bill if they are in a precarious situation.”

According to the company’s website, OnlyFans has over 60 million registered users and 750,000 content creators. The company says it has paid out more than US$1 billion to its users so far.