Anti-Slavery Commissioner calls for inquiry into exploitation on OnlyFans

The UK’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, has called for a public inquiry into potential ‘exploitation’ of women on the online platform OnlyFans, after a BBC investigation exposed threatening and exploitative behaviour.

The BBC investigation, entitled ‘OnlyFans: Inside the machine’, revealed abusive behaviour from OnlyFans ‘agents’. These OnlyFans Managers (OFM) were found to have used violence and intimidation to control women, which one agent has called the ‘pimping method’.

OnlyFans has 4.6 million creators who upload photos and videos for those who pay to subscribe. While the platform is not exclusively pornographic, the vast majority of accounts deliver explicit content. OnlyFans, which is based in the UK, takes a 20% cut of all subscription fees.

Ms Lyons has written to the chair of Parliament’s science, innovation, and technology committee, Dame Chi Onwurah, to highlight “serious allegations and evidence”. Joined by the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Tonia Antoniazzi MP, she has called for an inquiry into the “extent and nature of exploitation” on OnlyFans.

“The recently released BBC documentary OnlyFans: Inside the Machine exposes deeply troubling evidence of coercion, exploitation, violence, financial control and indicators of human trafficking being reported to OnlyFans and occurring on the platform itself,” she said.

“The harms uncovered are not simply about online content. They concern real-world abuse and exploitation taking place offline against vulnerable individuals, many of them young women. Of particular concern was the documentary’s evidence relating to so-called ‘OnlyFans Managers’ and agencies exercising extensive third-party control over individuals’ accounts, finances, communications and lives.”

She added: “The investigation demonstrated patterns strongly suggestive of coercion and exploitation, including the withholding of earnings, intimidation, account control, surveillance, pressure to produce degrading or harmful content and violence.”

A spokesperson for OnlyFans said that they “take the safety of our users seriously and invest heavily in measures to protect our community, including strict onboarding processes, payment controls and ongoing account moderation, as well as collaborating closely with charities, expert groups and law enforcement to continuously evolve our safety features and support investigations… OnlyFans does not endorse or have relationships with management agencies, and cannot review or influence any contractual agreements creators choose to enter into outside the platform as we are not party to them.”