LONDON—Investigative journalists for Reuters on Wednesday published an exposé reporting that over 120 people have been victimized by CSAM and other non-consensual intimate imagery that was published and sold by their abusers on OnlyFans.
Owned by Fenix International Limited, the creator site touts strong trust, safety and content moderation protocols.
For the report—entitled "Behind the OnlyFans porn boom: allegations of rape, abuse and betrayal"—the journalists for the wire service perused public records and collected testimony from victims of the alleged abuse.
The report states that victims reported 128 cases to U.S. law enforcement agencies of non-consensual and unlawful activity between January 2019 and November 2023.
One of the more damning allegations comes from a woman who says a video of her sexual assault was sold on the platform.
“The victim is clearly saying no,” says Todd Falzone, a lawyer representing the victim, who is referred to in the report simply as "Sammy."
"So if they were really moderating that video, they would have seen and heard that,” Falzone said.
A spokesperson representing OnlyFans said that "in the few examples where bad actors have misused our platform ... [we] removed the content swiftly, banned the user, and actively supported investigations and prosecutions."
The spokesperson told the Reuters journalists that their consent verification procedures were "tightened" in late 2022.
Keily Blair, the current chief executive officer of OnlyFans, said that "100 percent" of all content is reviewed by human moderators and aided by artificial intelligence. This is a similar moderation process recently touted by Pornhub's parent company Aylo.
The size of the OnlyFans content moderation team is unknown.
Like other social media platforms, OnlyFans voluntarily reports CSAM to non-governmental organizations and law enforcement.
In 2022, the parent company of OnlyFans reported 310 potential cases of child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and its CyberTipline program. For context, Aylo (still MindGeek at the time) reported over 2,000 cases to NCMEC. Properties owned by Meta Platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, reported 28 million cases to the CyberTipline.
Like Aylo, OnlyFans also participates in the NCMEC TakeItDown program and is involved with the StopNCII.org initiative in England.
